The Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses
by xoxo Juniebug
Summary: At the conclusion of episode 50, you thought the Digimon Frontier story was over, didn't you? Well think again, 'cause it's just begun. / Pairings: Takumi, Kouruchi, Ryuki /03/04 crossover/
1. Kouji Gets a Message

**Digimon Frontier: ****The Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses**

A pair of long and pale fingers tapped furiously at the black keyboard. Every minute or so, a right hand would shift to the mouse, click around once or twice, then return to typing.

**Sarucheese (17:58:02):** man! i cant believe summer is here.**  
**

**Prettyinpurple (17:58:45):** ya! and tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!

**Prettyinpurple (17:59:09):** beach fun here we come! im gonna play beach volley all DAY!!**  
**

**Sarucheese (17:59:15):** yay 4 killer tans!

**Prettyinpurple (17:59:32)**: zz who cares about tans when u can spike a vball in takky's face??

**Prettyinpurple (17:59:33)**: lol

**Prettyinpurple (17:59:39): **o frick i gotta do some last minute beach shopping w/ mom. c u tmr! xox

**Sarucheese (17:59:53):** yo i care about tans...

**Sarucheese (17:59:55):** anyway lates! xoxo

_User __**Prettyinpurple**__ has signed off (18:00:13)_

Fourteen-year-old Saruchi Kanbara sat up from her bed and stretched. She closed her laptop, got off the bed, and walked over to the window, surveying the yard in front of the Kanbara's cozy home in the suburbs of Shibuya City. She shut her sky-blue eyes in pleasure as the setting sun warmed her pale skin. Her pure-white hair, which was shoulder-length - except for a handful of strands on the upper left of her head that had been tied up by a slim black hair band -, glimmered in the shining rays of the sun.

_What a beautiful day_, Saruchi thought to herself. _Crap, maybe I should have done something more productive than spending all day online._

A quick rapping at her door interrupted her thoughts. _Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! _She swirled around in surprise, and beheld Shinya Kanbara, her eighteen-month-younger brother.

Shinya, 13-years old and going into the eighth grade, was essentially a younger replica of Takuya in physical appearance. There were only a few exceptions: Shinya's hair was a darker, redder brown, highlighted with natural copper-colored streaks, and his eyes were duller compared to Takuya's milk-chocolate brown hair and light-filled russet eyes. Shinya also happened to be incredibly smart for his young age, and brought home various awards from school on a monthly basis, much to the chagrin of his older siblings.

"Yo. Dinner. Spaghetti. Right now," said Shinya irritably. He was ravenous and spaghetti and meatballs was his favorite thing to have for dinner. He especially enjoyed putting two meatballs up to his eyes, pretending to be "The Meatball Menace," and basically annoying the hell out of Takuya.

"All right," Saruchi said, then followed Shinya out of the room and shut the door. Instantly, her nose was filled with a recognizable, drool-inducing scent. Her stomach grumbled hungrily as she and Shinya raced down the stairs. He-_llo_, meatballs!

* * *

Mr. Kanbara, Mrs. Kanbara, and Takuya were already seated at the circular dining table. Takuya hadn't even noticed Shinya and Saruchi's entrance because he was in a trance-like state, staring at the food; meanwhile, a small dribble of spit had collected at the corner of his mouth. As Shinya took his seat, which was in between Mrs. Kanbara and Takuya, he paused to give Takuya a hard thwack upside the head.

"Hey! What the hel—heck — was that for?!" Takuya snapped.

"You had the Amazon River forming at the side of your mouth," Shinya brazenly shot back. Saruchi bit her lip, trying not to laugh, as Mr. Kanbara chuckled, while Mrs. Kanbara simply told Shinya to say sorry.

"Sorry, Takuya," Shinya said, his eyes full of fake remorse for the benefit of his parents. Takuya and Saruchi were used to this blazing injustice; fortunately for them, they had long since learned not to say a word.

The atmosphere was peacefully quiet for a few minutes, only broken by the occasional "pass the water, please"s and "here, let me get that for you"s. Takuya was lifting a forkful of BBQ sauce-drenched rib meat to his mouth when the doorbell rang. Takuya sprung up from the table faster than lightening. The fork fell to his plate with a loud clang.

"I'll get that!" he shouted, and before his parents could object, he almost _sprinted_ from the dining room and into the hallway. He was only wearing socks so he slid quickly and effortlessly down the hall, which had recently-waxed wooden flooring, while his long white shirt billowed like a sheet behind him. He stopped himself just short of the door and peered curiously into the peephole. A navy blue eye blinked back at him.

"Kouji?" Takuya said in surprise.

"TAKUYA! HURRY! OPEN THE DOOR!!" Kouji Minamoto, 15, yelled from the other side of the door.

Takuya's mouth curled into a small grin. He was going to have fun with this. How often did Kouji beg, after all?  
"Honey, who is it?" Mrs. Kanbara shouted from the dining room.

"No one, Mom – !"

"Takuya! C'mon!"

"Who's at the _door,_ Takuya?" Mrs. Kanbara yelled impatiently.

"It's just Kouji, Mom – !" More heavy pounding.

"Open the god damn door!"

"Hey! This is my house and I don't have to take such language!"

"Takuya!" Kouji pounded on the door some more.

"Won't do nothin' if you don't say please!" Takuya sang.

"God dammit!"

Suddenly, the door handle flew through the door and sailed in a straight path through the air, past Takuya, impaling the wall opposite the door. Above the point of impact, a Kanbara family portrait, painted several years ago, was slightly tilted. The door swung open, revealing Kouji Minamoto, Takuya's best friend and unofficial heartthrob of North Shibuya. Kouji, who was breathing hard, lowered his foot, which was outstretched, and stepped into the house.

The look on Takuya's face was one of pure shock as he surveyed what his friend had done: there were pathetic-looking splinters on the door where the handle had been, a deep dent was imprinted on the wall where the handle, which was now lying on the floor looking pretty pathetic, had impacted it.

Takuya stared at the wall, then at Kouji, then back at the wall again.

"Ahem…" Kouji scrambled for words. "Lovely… portrait up there?" he said awkwardly, pointing at the tilted picture. Takuya burst out laughing as Kouji regained his composure.

"Buddy, you really gotta work on that _temper_…" Takuya grinned. Why wasn't he mad? Because this was not the first time Kouji had broken something at the Kanbara household; last time, one of Takuya's soccer trophies, this time, the house's foundation.

"_Buddy_," said Kouji, "you really need to work on listening to everything I say. Now what are your parents gonna say?"

Takuya shrugged.

Kouji rolled his eyes and strode toward the wall. He inspected the point-of-impact.

Even though Kouji would never admit it, Takuya Kanbara was the best friend he had ever had and would probably ever have. They had the classic love-hate relationship, but they were a perfect fit for each other. Kouji was the subdued thinker who only spoke when necessary, while Takuya was the hot-headed man of action, always wearing his emotions on his sleeve. Meanwhile, they were both annoyingly stubborn, endlessly clever (albeit in different ways), and cluelessly attractive.

"So, why'd you come here?" Takuya asked, his curiousity getting the better of him. He was anticipating a nice long explanation for Kouji's rude (but not altogether unwelcome) interruption, so he sat down on the floor against the wall and began to stretch his long, soccer-toned legs.

"Oh, right…" Kouji exclaimed. He reached into the pocket of his North Face jacket and pulled out his phone. He tapped the keypad for a few moments until he found what he was looking for. He held out his black LG Envy for Takuya to read the short text message that was displayed:

_important find sentinel goddesses kerpymon hurry_

The message had no sender.

Takuya read it once, read it again, and then looked up at Kouji, who was looking at Takuya intensely. Takuya frowned. Kouji arched an eyebrow.

"Well?" Kouji inquired. Hopefully, Takuya had some clue about what a "sentinel goddess" was. Kouji had been puzzling over it for the past two hours. And even if Takuya didn't know, then he'd still realize the importance of the SMS. Either way, the blue eyed teen was expecting a smarter response than –

"Sorry, but I'm not really getting the picture here, Kouji. Is 'Kerpymon' a nickname for a girlfriend or something?" Then his eyes widened in genuine shock. "But Kouji! Me 'n' Izu thought you liked –"

"KERPYMON IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Kouji snapped. He was getting frustrated already, and he had no idea, nor did he want to have an idea, of the name Takuya had been about to say.

"She, I mean, _he_, is not even _human_!" His dark eyes darted around the room surreptitiously, expecting to find some sort of eavesdropper. Still not convinced of their security, he motioned Takuya to bring his ear closer.

"Remember in the Digital World how Cherubimon changed into a different Digimon when he was purified? Kerpymon was the name of Cherubimon's purified form!" Kouji whispered fiercely. The cobalt eyes stared intensely into the russet ones. Then, somewhere inside those russet eyes, something clicked.

Takuya's eyes widened. "No way!" Kouji smirked.

This was beyond anything Takuya had expected.

* * *

**Magic and Might (00:18:09):** so ur sayin dat the digimon r calling us again?

**Lupine Lasers (00:18:22 AM):** For the last time JP. YES!

**Magic and Might (00:18:45):** sry kouji. its just a little hard 2 believe

**Magic and Might (00:19:02):** nobody else got the text message but u. maybe takuya is playin a prank on u

**Lupine Lasers (00:19:13):** No way. He was the first person I talked to about it, and he was genuinely surprised.

**Magic and Might (00:19:54):** brb

**Lupine Lasers (00:22:32):** …

**Magic and Might (00:23:07):** ok back…h/o

User **Prettyinpurple** has joined the chat room (00:23:20)

**Prettyinpurple (00:23:21):** whats the matter JP??

**Lupine Lasers (00:23:28):** …

**Prettyinpurple (00:23:34):** oh hey KM! whats up??

**Lupine Lasers (00:23:48):** I'D LIKE TO ASK JP THE SAME QUESTION!!

**Magic and Might (00:24:15):** dont get ur granny panties in a bunch. tell z what happened

**Prettyinpurple (00:28:33):** omg!!

**Magic and Might (00:28:44):** hat?

**Magic and Might (00:28:47):** what?

**Prettyinpurple (00:28:59):** kouji fwded me!!

**Prettyinpurple (00:29:01):** but wats a sentinel goddess??

**Lupine Lasers (00:29:10):** I looked up "sentinel goddess" on google and nothing turned up.

**Magic and Might (00:29:12):** wtf

**Magic and Might (00:29:14):** dont b stupid

**Magic and Might (00:29:19):** that's like googling "lobomon" and expecting results

**Lupine Lasers (00:29:25):** For god's sake. Since _you're_ such a wise guy, you think of something better to do.

**Magic and Might (00:29:27):** uh……

**Prettyinpurple (00:29:32):** OMG!! i just googled "kouji lobomon"!!

**Lupine Lasers (00:29:35):** Really?

**Prettyinpurple (00:29:36):** ya…

**Prettyinpurple (00:29:41**): some site called "BOOBGIRLDOTNET" turned up first!! LOL!!

**Prettyinpurple (00:30:12):** helloooo??

**Prettyinpurple (00:30:33):** guys?

_User __**Magic and Might**__ has signed off (00:30:40)_

_User __**Lupine Lasers**__ has signed off (00:30:40)_

* * *

"The confusing thing was; there _is_ no 'boob girl dot net'. I made it up. Okay – three, two, one, PUSH!"  
With a grunt, 15-year-old Izumi Orimoto and grademates Shinya Kanbara and Tomoki Himi pushed hard, using their entire weight. Finally, the trunk of the SUV closed with a satisfying click. Meanwhile, the Kanbara twins Takuya and Saruchi, who were sitting cross-legged on the grass a few feet from the driveway, laughed themselves to tears. So it was true, there WAS testosterone beneath Kouji's hard exterior.

It was morning after, and the Chosen Warriors (plus Saruchi, Shinya, and Yutaka Himi, Tomoki's older brother) were all at the Himi home (which was rather grand and spacious for being in a suburb of a world city). It was so early, the sun hadn't even begun its ascent over the Tokyo horizon; nevertheless, the air was warm like it was already ten in the morning. With the suitcases and beach towels and parasols and volleyball set and god knows what else safely closed inside the trunk of the car and Takuya, Kouji, and Kouichi's bikes tied securely to the top of the vehicle, the Warriors & Co. could finally set off on their journey to the beach.

"Now all we need is the driver," said Izumi. She turned to Tommy. "Where's your brother, Tommy? Wait…" she looked around, and then was alarmed when she only saw Tommy, Takuya, Saruchi, and Shinya. "Oh my god, where are the others?"

13-year-old Tomoki flicked his jade eyes toward the house. He still had an air of naïve innocence even though he had undergone a _major_ growth spurt and was now as tall as Izumi, at 5"6. While he thought, he adjusted the black cotton beanie on his head. "Yutaka said they were going to the bathroom, so I guess they'll be back in a minute," he supposed.

Just then, the front door to the home opened, and Kouji walked out, followed by Kouichi Kimura, his long-lost twin brother (Well technically, Kouji was the long-lost twin brother, but anyway). Kouichi looked exactly like he had four years ago in the digital world, with the same haircut and the same jaded, but kind light in his eyes. He looked almost exactly like Kouji, with the matching pale complexion, navy eyes, and black hair; however, he was about an inch shorter than his younger brother. Height didn't matter when it came to the strong bond that the brothers shared, so it went by unnoticed most of the time (AKA: when Takuya had more important things to comment on).

Junpei (JP) Shibayama and Yutaka Himi came out of the house after Kouichi and Kouji. JP, turning seventeen that September, had lost a few pounds (and that hideous blue jumpsuit - thank goodness!), but he still possessed the familiar rotund figure, making it obvious that the pounds he had had in the Digital World were not just "baby fat". Yutaka Himi, on the other hand, looked just like his brother: lanky, with warm green eyes and soft chestnut hair. He was jingling his car keys in one hand and holding a steaming silver flask in the other. The outdoor light illuminated the four boys, and Izumi's eyes lit up when she spotted them.

"Hey guys, the car's all packed!" she said enthusiastically. Takuya got up from the grass and stretched his limbs.

"C'mon, you heard the girl! Let's move, move, move _it_!" he cried.

Yutaka looked disturbed. "Christ, what's wrong with you two? You're both as full of energy as I will be when the caffeine finally kicks in," he said resentfully, taking a small sip from the large flask as he unlocked the doors of his silver-colored 2007 Isuzu Ascender.

Takuya grinned unabashedly and Izumi looked sheepish, but still excited. Because seriously, come _on_! For the next 2 days and 1 night, they would be having fun with the waves, the sand, and the sunshine. And in the words of our favorite goggle head, "put that all together and what do you got? The _beach_, baay-beh!"

"All right people, get in so we can get this show on the road," Yutaka said while he got into the car. He turned the car on. The engine revved noisily.

Then Junpei screamed, pushed Kouichi and Kouji aside, and ran to the front passenger seat. He almost tripped over his own feet while running.

"SHOTGUNSHOTGUNSHOTGUNSHOTGUN!" was what Junpei was screaming. Several birds flew from their coops in the trees in the Himi yard and other surrounding yards; also, even the demure Mrs. Himi had to come outside and tell them to keep their voices down. After everybody apologized again for being too loud and Mrs. Himi went back inside (but not before giving them a parental "have fun, be safe" speech), Yutaka slapped JP in the face.

"Out of my car. No shotgun for you, big mouth," the 19-year-old said sternly.

JP's mouth dropped open. He looked flabbergasted. "Whaat?! But I'm the oldest out of everyone here!"

"And Tommy is youngest, not to mention the fact that he's my brother. Therefore, he is shot gunning today. Out of my car, and don't make me repeat it again. I have a killer headache." He took another sip from his flask.

"Umm, should he _really_ be driving?" Saruchi muttered.

Kouji and Kouichi happened to be closest to Saruchi when she said this. They began to look uncomfortable.

JP grumbled as Tomoki sat in the front seat. Tomoki shot the Warrior of Thunder an apologetic look before shutting the door. Meanwhile, Takuya, Izumi, and Shinya had already claimed their spots in the middle row of the SUV.

Takuya rolled down the window and stuck his head out like a dog. He flashed his tongue at everyone outside. "You guys are just gonna have to squish yourselves the back row! Have fun!" Izumi, who was beside him, grinned cheekily. Yutaka's car only seated seven: two in the front row, three in the middle row, and three in the back. However, seeing as there were eight people, four were going to have to squish into a row that was only meant for three.

"Hey! Not fair! I say girls sit in middle row!" Saruchi complained, looking to Izumi for support. Izumi fervently nodded her agreement.

"Saru, what the hell!? _Six boys_ can't fit in the back," Takuya retorted.

"Takuya, there are only five of us."

An embarassed blush spread over Takuya's tanned cheeks. "Uhh… well, no offense… but, JP…"

Everyone sweat dropped and glanced at Junpei.

A noncommittal "hmph" was Junpei's response.

Soon enough, everyone was arguing over who was going to sit where. Yutaka pressed his index finger to his temple. _Fuck! I should have **known**_ _baby sitting eight teenagers was a bad way to start to summer! This sucks_…_ I need a smoke._

"Everybody just shut up and chill," Yutaka said in a forced calm voice as he lit up a cigarette, "There's only one fair way to settle this. Four youngest people in the back (not counting Tommy)."

Poor little Shinya threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

In less than 10 minutes, everyone was inside the vehicle. When Takuya made a scene about not wanting to sit in the middle (as opposed to a window seat), Yutaka dictated that the oldest from each row would get window seats. So in the back row, Takuya and Izumi got the window while Saruchi (who is 6 minutes younger than Takuya) and Shinya sat in between them, and they were satisfied. Meanwhile, Kouji was pissed at having to sit next to JP, considering last night's events, but when Kouichi offered his seat, Kouji declined; Kouichi had a proclivity for carsickness. Before Yutaka moved the car, he double-checked that there was absolutely _nobody _wanted to use the toilet before they left, and when everyone affirmed, he backed out of the driveway. They were on their way to the beach!

But of course, fifteen minutes afterwards, the SUV pulled up to and parked at a McDonalds. Takuya, Saruchi, and Izumi needed the bathroom.

* * *

**Jxn!enote Aug 21 08: **i wasnt planning to upload this, but... eh...  
back to hiatus. peace, x's, o's


	2. The Digimon Tamers Reloaded

In the upper-right corner of Ruki's visor-screen, a flashing red light appeared. It began to swiftly move to the bottom-left corner of the grid. By the corner, a bolded sky-blue target sign flashed on and off, giivng one the impression that it was a warning. Ruki's mauve eyes narrowed.

_Don't they ever learn?  
_

"Code B, Code B," Ruki reported. "I'm getting a signal, but it might be another false alarm. Rewriting perimeters… uploading data to server… now the signal's getting stronger. I think it's another Wild One." Ruki waited for the data to finish uploading so she could see the results. "Code B in T minus 2 minutes," she said. Her fingers tapped at the holographic keyboard like five little whirlwinds. Each second was precious. "Should I upload a Downgrade Virus?"

"Nah, let's let the little critter pass from the Digital World to the Real World! I'm sure nothing will go wrong," Ryo chirped mockingly.

"Ugh... loser," Ruki muttered, under her breath.

"_Loser_?" Ryo asked mockingly. "Losing your touch?"

"I could try touching my fists to your jaw! Then you can answer that for yourself!"

"_Will you guys ever stop arguing!? _Ruki, how big is the Wild One?" The impatience in Jenrya's voice was clear.

"It's really small... its file size is less than one megabyte. It's probably an In-Training... Bio-Bypass will commence in T minus seventy seconds, still awaiting orders," Ruki reported.

"How did an In-Training figure out how to Bio-Bypass?" Takato wondered aloud. Ruki shrugged, uncaringly.

"It doesn't matter _how_, we just need to stop it," said Ryo.

Silence reigned for many more valuable seconds. Ruki's eyes focused on the flashing red light. It was quickly approaching the forbidden sky-blue target. Why was Jenrya taking so god-damn long to issue the order…? They were going to Downgrade this Wild One, send it back to the safe Digital World, just like all the others. She only asked Jenrya what to do in these situations because it was a formality. Ruki's formed a fist and she gritted her teeth. _That's Jenrya's freaking problem: taking forever and a half to make up his freaking mind. _Ruki sighed and paused her typing to tug her arm sleeves down. The room was so cold. It was one of the repercussions of living at the Digital World's south pole.

Meanwhile, unbeknown to his teammates, the final member of the group's thought process was in hyper-overdrive. Sitting across the room from Ruki, Takato, and Ryo, facts and scenarios and figures and numbers flashed through his mind at a speed ordinary people would not be able to keep up with. Finally, he arrived at a conclusion: _It's too small to test out my new invention, and saving it would just be a waste of time._

Jenrya's voice was as cold and as hard as a frozen glacier. It sounded frighteningly unlike him. "Delete it. It's too small to test."

"What?!" Takato roared, impulsively. "You can't be _serious_…!"

"_How could he say that_?" was the only thing going through Takato, Ruki, and Ryo's minds. Had Jenrya already forgotten Terriermon?

"T minus _seven seconds_!_ Ruki_!"

"Okay, okay! Whatever you say, boy…" Ruki muttered the last part, pressing a yellow key, and then, for the first time ever, a red key with a black skull-and-crossbones on it, on the holographic keyboard. A loading bar appeared on the upper-left corner of of everybody's visor, along with a measure of its progress: 5 percent... 10 percent... 15 percent...

...100 percent. With only two seconds left on the clock.

"Deletion Virus uploaded…" she reported, uncertainly.

* * *

**13 Oct o8**  
btw, an In-Training digimon is like the least powerful digimon in a digivolving family.  
and im using tamers characters. im using the japanese names. (jenrya henry, ruki rika, ryo and takato are the same)  
sorry for the short chapter (if you can call it that) hah


	3. Enter: Musyamon!

_Jxn!enote 22 December 2010: Sorry for the late update. I have been very busy with school and with an extended illness that caused me to be out of school from December to May 2010. Also, I moved to a different region of the states and started my senior year at a new high school. My life has been hectic, and I have had not had time to work on my stories. Plus, the computer with all the stories crashed and I lost all my hard work of all my stories! (Unluckily for me, I did not save them on a flash drive. :() So this is chapter 3 of Sentinel Goddesses, I hope you enjoy it. Also thankyou for the nice reviews and keep them coming, I appreciate every review and every constructive criticism that comes my way._

"Oh, and I'm going to a private school. It's very ritzy," responded Kouji.

Takuya stared at Kouji. "I can't believe this. How am I going to see you every day?"

Kouji shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, we just have to make it work, now won't we," said Saruchi in an unusually commandeering manner, who had been listening to the boys talk. "Kouji, I'm sure you'll do fine in your new school. And there's a positive to all of this mess. You're going to be with us for the rest of this school year."

"Actually I'm transferring this Monday."

"We'll be all right," said Saruchi.

"Are you sure?" asked Kouji.

Saruchi gave him the thumbs-up sign. "We'll do our best."

"Do you need any help packing your stuff?" asked Takuya.

"Nah," responded Kouji.

"Do you want us to come to the school with you?" Saruchi asked.

"Absolutely not," said Kouji.

"Fine then," said Takuya.

"You know you're always welcome here," said Saruchi with a smile.

"Tell that to our family picture," Takuya said, pointing at the askew family picture and then at the broken doorknob. "I'm sure he'd like to never see Kouji again."

"Ha-ha, funny guy," said Saruchi. "Well, Kouji, good luck at your new school!" she said and gave him a friendly hug.

Kouji's eyes widened and he blushed. Takuya narrowed his eyes at him as if to say, '_don't you dare try anything, dude.' _Kouji patted Saruchi's back. Saruchi released Kouji and smiled.

"So what's this?" asked Saruchi, who had Kouji's iPhone 4 in her hands.

"Don't read that!" snapped Kouji.

"You're my brother's best friend, I'm sure I can read your text messages. Hmm, what is this? Is it a lurve note? Who's Kerpymon? That doesn't sound like a name, at all. It sounds like-"

"The man said," said Takuya, grabbing Saruchi's arm and twisting it behind her, "Give the cell phone back to him."

"Mom, Takuya's touching Saruchi!" Shinya exclaimed, who had just walked into the hallway. _He had finished his dinner too early_, thought Takuya. _He didn't even get to the meatball menace part yet._

"Takuya, don't touch Saruchi, it's wrong," Mr. Kanbara yelled.

"Fine," said Takuya. He released his twin. "But here's a hint - leave us alone."

"No really, who's Kerpymon?" asked Saruchi. "Inquiring minds want to know."

Kouji took his phone from Saruchi. "I'm going home."

"You just got here," responded Saruchi.

"No, it's time for him to leave," said Takuya, not wanting to see anymore huggy-kissy stuff today from the two of them. It was sick and unimaginable.

"See you later, Takuya. Call me."

* * *

_I am coming. _

"Who's there?" yelled Kouji into thin air, earning him strange looks from passerby. He looked around at them, but no one looked back at him, as if none of them were talking to him. He swore he had heard a voice talking, but nobody was speaking to him, and yet, he swore he had heard someone, a very old someone, talking to him. Kouji wondered if he was going crazy.

'_Must have been the wind,_' he thought to himself. He put his hands back in his pockets and continued walking.

_ I will be here when you least expect it._

Frustrated and confused, Kouji stopped walking. Wind tousled his black hair.

"Who is talking to me?" he yelled into the air. He glanced at the sky. The sky was getting dark quickly. It was getting too dark. At that moment, thunderclouds were forming over the spot he was on. They were dark, rolling thunder clouds, heavy with rain.

Suddenly the cloud opened as if a heavenly being had ripped it apart. A long seam spread throughout the cloud and pure yellow light shone out of it. Kouji hesitated, wondering whether what he was viewing was real. Kouji continued watching. A black figure erupted out of the hole. The dark figure looked small, but as it came towards the ground, it got larger and larger. As it got closer to Kouji, Kouji could see details. It was a humanoid creature, with large, bulging arm muscles and bulging leg muscles. It wore camo-green pants with fanged, dragon shaped kneecaps over its knees. One of the creature's feet was a dragon claw, with sharp, red talons and the other foot was a human foot wearing a purple boot. The creature wore a tan vest underneath battle armor which looked like a samurai. It was wearing a metal samurai helmet, and underneath the helmet was spiky purple hair. The creature carried a curved katana which was as twice long as Kouji's arm, and it looked like a brand new katana.

The creature landed on the ground. The pavement cracked and Kouji took two steps back.

"Who—what are you?"  
The creature lunged at Kouji with its katana.

"Whoa!" Kouji yelled rolling across the pavement. The katana struck a fence and sliced it into two, sending wooden splinters everywhere. The creature lifted its katanaand swung at Kouji again. Kouji jumped to his feet and did a double handspring backwards and out of the way. The creature's katana lodged in the pavement. As the creature tugged at its katana Kouji ran behind it, jumped the broken fence, and ran into a front yard. He sprinted as quickly as he could across the yard, jumping over bushes and ducking under low tree branches. He ran into the back yard. Then, he arrived at a back street. The street was mysteriously empty. Kouji noticed that there was a fog around him. He immediately began running down the street.

The creature gave chase to Kouji, as it followed Kouji's tracks through the muddy yard (it was raining by now). Rain got into Kouji's face and he looked behind him to see if the monster was chasing him. The creature was 2 houses behind and quickly catching up, its sword glinting in the darkened sunlight which reflected off the raindrops.

'_Why is this happening?' _Kouji thought as he sprinted even faster down the street.

"Come and face me!" the creature's demonic voice yelled after Kouji.

The only way out of this situation, it seemed, was a fight. Kouji ran past a gate. Looking around, he realized he was in an abandoned junkyard. Perfect, there were a lot of weapons here. He looked around for the perfect weapon, and then he found it: a long metal pole about six feet long.

"It's time for a beat down for my new friend," Kouji muttered to himself as he brandished the long pole. "Come out! I'm ready to fight you, whatever you are!" Kouji yelled and immediately charged forwards.

"Grarghh!" the demonic voice yelled again, somewhere in front of Kouji. Something bashed into the metal pole, sending Kouji into a one-on-one battle with the demon and its katana. They exchanged blows, but neither could hit the other. "Warrior of Light, you are an adept swordsman," the demon growled.

"How do you know I'm the Warrior of Light?" asked Kouji. Sweat drops dripped down his chin as they exchanged blows. The creature's sword went for a head blow and Kouji deftly blocked it. _Ching! _The sword swung at Kouji's left, and Kouji blocked the fatal blow with his pole. _Ching! _The creature jabbed at his stomach, and Kouji jumped out of the way and swung for the demon, but the metal pole clanged metal armor instead of flesh. _Ching!_

"Why, I came to this world just to meet you. I assume you've trained in martial arts before." said the demon. _Ching! Ching!_

"Yeah, I have, but I don't see how that is any of your business. What's your name anyway?" _Ching!_

"My name is Musyamon, and for your information, it's all of my business. I want to know how hard I'll have to try to defeat you. Seems like it's not very hard." The creature slashed at Kouji, and Kouji was too slow to jump out of the way. The sword cut into his chest, leaving a long diagonal slash of blood. Kouji fell to the ground and clutched at his heart.

"Demon," spat Kouji.

"Not just a demon. I'm made of your worst nightmares!" Musyamon, as this creature was called, made a giant leap at Kouji. He was clearly aiming for the kill. Then Kouji saw an opening. He rolled underneath Musyamon, grabbed the metal pole, and when Musyamon turned around, Kouji swung at Musyamon's sword. The pole knocked the katana out of Musyamon's hand.

"No!" Musyamon yelled. "You knocked my katana out of my hand!"

"It was easy, but thanks for asking how it went," said Kouji, grinning. "Now talk. Tell me why you're here and why you're trying to kill me."

Musyamon looked away from Kouji. "I won't talk. You won't make me."

"Hmm?" Kouji suddenly got an idea. "Well, the Warrior of Light will make you." Musyamon glared at Kouji with his gray eyes, then sat up, resigned. '_I can't believe that worked.' _Thought Kouji.

"Well, I was practicing with _Shiratori-maru_ today. Suddenly there was a bright, shiny light. It was shiny and round, like a ball. I was amazed by the light. I walked towards it. And I was suddenly sucked into a vortex. It felt funny, and it was interesting." Then he stopped.

"_Shiratori-_maru?"

"My katana," said Musyamon. "Which I want back, by the way."

"Not a chance," Kouji said. "What made you decide to come here and kill me? How did you know

I was the Warrior of Light?"

"Everyone in the DigiWorld knows you, you're one of the ten Legendary Warriors who helped defeat Lucemon. It was 5,000 years ago. Everyone learns that in DigiSchool."

_Time moves faster in the Digital World._ Kouji remembered.

"We need your help, though. There's a new villain," said Musyamon.

"A new what?" asked Kouji.

"Someone else is trying to take over the DigiWorld," said Musyamon. "I've heard rumors, terrible rumors. Three humans. And a big, scary metal palace."

"I don't think I can help. For one thing I don't know how to get back to the DigiWorld." Kouji said. Although it would be nice to go back to the DigiWorld. He remember the power he felt when he spirit evolved into Lobomon. It was only 2 years ago.  
"Go back the way you first went. How did you arrive there?" Musyamon asked.

"We—I mean, I got there through a train," responded Kouji. He began to warm up to the idea of going back to the DigiWorld.

"Well then, there's your ticket," responded Musyamon.

Kouji nodded. "I'm not going to let you get away, though."

"What are you going to do with me?" asked Musyamon.

"I'm going to…" Kouji faltered. "Uhh, I'm going to… never mind, I'll just leave you here," said Kouji. He started to walk away. "See ya later. Or not." Kouji decided he was going to go back to Shibuya station. Just to see if there was some way back to the Digital World.

"Wait," Musyamon called, scrambling awkwardly to his feet. His head hurt, and his arms hurt from the fight with the Warrior of Light. He was super strong. Of course he was super strong, he was the famed Warrior of Light, one of the ten Legendary Warriors who defeated Lucemon thousands of years ago.

Musyamon was alone in a new world and he had no friends, and plus he had no idea where he was going to practice with his katana. He really liked to practice with his katana.

"Uh, just go somewhere," said Kouji. "Don't make any trouble. I'm going to go somewhere for a while." It didn't occur to Kouji that he should let someone know that he just battled with a Digimon, not even any of his friends who would probably want to hear it. Kouji was indifferent like that. Besides he couldn't think of what he would do with a digimon. He couldn't exactly take it home with him. His dad would kill him, he already disliked Bruno. Bruno peed on the carpet a lot so it was no wonder.

When Kouji arrived at Shibuya Station, Kouji decided to check out the basement first. It then occurred to him that he should let someone know where he was first. "Just in case I don't come back up," he said to himself. He removed his cell phone and called Kouichi Kimura, his twin brother.

"Hello?"

"Hey," said Kouji.

"Oh hey, Kouji, what's up?" said Kouichi.

"I'm going to look for some digimon," said Kouji.

There was silence on the line. Then: "I'm coming."

"No you're not."

"You don't tell me what to do," it was a fact, not a retort.

"I mean, you've got to wait for me at home, okay?"

"Why?" asked Kouichi sadly

"Because I'm already here," said Kouji.

"Are you sure about this expedition? Sounds like you're going off and having a grand adventure without me, or, well, the rest of us –" he whispered the next word – "Spirit Kids."

"Don't call us spirit kids. That sounds so gay," said Kouji.

"I wanna come I wanna come I wanna come," whined Kouichi.

"Shut up," said Kouji. "Oh and by the way, there's some goon called Musyamon running around town. Do we know anything about him?"

"Wait, what?"

"Never mind, talk to you later." Kouji hung up. As Kouji entered Shibuya Station, he noticed that the crowds were large. As usual, the bustling train station was fully in operation. Kouji went towards the elevators at the back and pressed the down button. Kouji needed a gun. If Digimon were tracking him down to kill him, he needed a weapon that was going to delete them in one hit. He had been lucky with Musyamon, to find a junkyard with the pefect sized pole. But he couldn't carry a pole around with him everywhere, and besides, he had left the pole back there with Musyamon. Remembering Musyamon, Kouji pounded his fist into the elevator door, which opened a second later.

Kouji stepped into darkness.


	4. Saruchi Disappears

He hadn't been in this place for five years. The underground was dark and deserted. There was dust everywhere. There was an abandoned newspaper flying around on the underground wind, which smelled like dirt and metal. A number of abandoned trains were on the tracks. Kouji stepped carefully into the train station. He didn't know quite what he was looking for. A sign, maybe, from Kerpymon, whoever that was.

"Hello?" Kouji called. "Anybody there?"

The trains creaked.

Kouji walked inside the closest train, a brown and green giant. The lights were still flickering, getting their power from an unknown source. Kouji walked through the compartment until he got to the next one. He kept walking through the compartments, maybe hoping he'd find something.

"_Dream awhile, scheme awhile, we're here to find  
Happiness and I guess, all those things you've always pined for.  
Gee, I'd like to see you looking swell, baby,  
Diamond bracelets Woolworth doesn't sell, baby.  
Till that lucky day you know darn well, baby—"_

"Hey?" said Kouji, answering his cell phone.

"Hey man, it's Takuya. I was calling about the Kerpymon stuff Saruchi found on your phone. That sounds like a digimon! You think we're going to have to go back to the digital world?"Takuya said everything so quickly and quietly that Kouji barely heard him.

"Takuya," he said, "I can barely hear you."

"Sorry, my sister is right next door and she might be listening." There were a few moments of silence while went to check the door. "So where are you now?"

"I'm on a train," said Kouji.

"A train?" asked Takuya. "Are you going home?"

"No, I'm trying to find a way to the digital world."

"… no way," said Takuya. "So you think that Kerpymon thing isn't a hoax, then?"

"Definitely not," said Kouji. "Kerpymon told us to come to the digital world as soon as possible. But there was no way for us to get there."

"Maybe he was going to give us a method of getting there," said Takuya, "And then somehow something—or someone—stopped him." Takuya's voice had a mysterious lilt to it. Kouji wondered if Takuya was trying to spook him on purpose.

"If you're trying to scare me, it ain't working," said Kouji.

Takuya laughed. "You're not easily scared, anyway."

"Lots of things scare me, Takuya."

"Like what?"

"…ladybugs, beetles, and fireflies."

Takuya didn't have to say anything. He knew that was a lie.

Kouji reached the end of one compartment. He opened the door at the end of the compartment, and then went into the next one. It was empty as well, with dust in the air and spider webs on the ceiling. The whole atmosphere was decidedly empty, and devoid of life. "Hang on," said Kouji. There was a book on the floor several feet in front of him. He went forward and picked the book up.

"What—what is it?"

"Who brought this here?"

Saruchi picked up the silver dress. "This dress… or this one?" she picked up a blue dress. Suddenly, there was a knock at her door.

"Yess?" she called.

"It's your mother on the phone for you. Get out here and answer it." Mr. Kanbara called from outside the door.

"'kay," said Saruchi. She opened the door and took the tiny black iPhone from her father, who crossed his arms and watched. "Hello?"

"Hey, honey," said Mrs. Kanbara. "How are you?"

Saruchi sighed. Her mom was super-formal, and always insisted on talking to her children as if they were her clients. "I'm doing great, mom. What do you want?"

"I'm calling to cancel the trip."

"What?"

"I am, unfortunately and to my deepest regret, unable to come home this weekend. The managers in Paris have sued us for slander. There's no knowing if we'll win this one. Millions of yen are at stake. And my boss is telling me if I don't win this one, we'll all lose our jobs."

Saruchi stood there, in utter shock. "I've been planning this for months! I've got everything packed, everyone's ready to go. Can Dad take us?"

"I have to make a sale in Osaka," said Mr. Kanbara, "tomorrow."

Mr. and Mrs. Kanbara worked in business. Mr. Kanbara was a traveling salesman for his company, an engineering company which made parts for cars. Mrs. Kanbara was a famous lawyer for an international marketing firm. Together, it meant that they were rarely home and when they were home, they acted like bitchy snobs. To their own children.

It sucked. Saruchi had to baby-sit Shinya all the time and had to do all of the dishes. During school time she practically had to run the house and do extra-curricular activities. She never had a break. The only good thing out of the whole situation was she got extra allowance from her parents for being the only girl, and the whole family lived in a nice, large house on the rich side of town.

"Dad, please? Can't you skip this one?" asked Saruchi. "Take a vacation for once!"

"Impossible," said Mr. Kanbara. "Our jobs keep the paychecks coming in."

"So you have no right to complain, young lady," said Mrs. Kanbara, from the phone. "Now that that's settled, I'll see you guys next week. Tell Dad I love him." The phone clicked and she hung up.

"Dad, mom says I love you," said Saruchi. She handed the phone back to him. "And I never want to speak to or see you sorry pricks again."

"Sign up for more extracurricular activities during the summer, and you won't have to!" yelled Mr. Kanbara.

"You're a real prick, you know?" Saruchi yelled back. She went inside her room and slammed the door.

* * *

"Izumi, Izumi, let down your hair," said Takuya.

"_Takuya_."

"I just wanna play with it. Make it up a little. You always wear it in the same style everyday, so I'm going to do something new with it," said Takuya.

"_Fine_."

He took off her purple cap and put it on the ground. Then, he put his fingers in her hair and massaged her scalp. "Oh yeah baby! This feels good! Hell yeah, baby!"

Kouji, Kouichi, JP, and Tommy looked at Izumi and shook their heads. The games lovers play sometimes. It was a little touching to watch.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that? He's_ playing_ with my hair, isn't he?" Izumi grumbled.

"I'm _making it fancy_," insisted Takuya, twirling her blond locks.

"Are you going to braid my hair or something?" asked Izumi.

"I can't braid. I can do a ponytail, a pigtail, and twists. Pick one."

"A ponytail," said Izumi, "But _don't _do anything else."

"Okay," said Takuya. Then he looked up and shook his head at the others, mouthing '_Hell nooo.'_

"First I have to loosen up the hair..."

"All right, I'm ignoring that," Kouji said, looking pointedly at Takuya, who was making energetic pelvic thrusts as he massaged Izumi's head, "Let's get to business. We have one Kerpymon, one Musyamon, and not enough time to find both of 'em."

"Who's Musyamon again?" said Tommy.

"… I just told you," said Kouji.

"I forgot," Tommy said.

"Sure you did." Kouji rolled his eyes. "Musyamon is a devil digimon who attacked me yesterday on my way to Shibuya station."

"Then what happened?" asked Tommy.

"I let him go, and I went to Shibuya station. Anyway, what we have to do now, is find him and Kerpymon. And a way to the digital world. Without letting anyone know of what we're doing. That includes siblings, parents, classmates, general public, et cetera."

"Wait a minute! How are we going to find Musyamon?" asked Takuya. "You let him go like an idiot!"

"I haven't _got_ to that part yet," said Kouji.

"How are we going to find _Kerpymon_?" asked Izumi. "If he's in the digital world, we won't be able to find him."

Kouji pointed at Kouichi. "Kouichi, what do we know?"

"We know that there's a digimon called Kerpymon in trouble. We know there's no portal in Shibuya station. We know that we're famous in the Digital World, and we know that whatever time it is here, the last time we went to the Digital World in Digital World time is five-thousand years ago." Kouichi ticked everything off on his fingers. "Oh… and we know that evil digimon can find a way from the Digital World to the real world now."

"What does that last one mean?" asked Takuya. "I mean… er, second to last?"

Kouichi looked at Takuya. "Which one was that?"

"Five-thousand years ago?"

"Yeah."

"It means, in the digital world, we're very, very old," said Kouji.

"Just checking," said Takuya.

"So here's what we're gonna do," said Kouji. "Kouichi, JP, and I will have to look for Musyamon. We're going to try and get some answers from him, yeah? Takuya, you Izumi and Tommy will look for a portal around the city. You three can go together or you can split up."

"That's not fair. Why do they get to be with Izumi?" JP asked, pointing at Takuya and Tommy.

"Do you have to think about Izumi every waking minute of your life?" asked Takuya. "Do you even have a life? Do you?"

"I don't think about Izumi every minute of my life," said JP, rolling his eyes as if to say, '_What a loser._' Why did Takuya always have to make life hell?

"You're the strongest," said Kouji simply. "I can't take out Musyamon on my own."

"You won't be on your own," said Kouichi.

Kouji smiled at him.

"See? He has a good reason for his choice," said Takuya, "You don't have to act like such a stalker."

"I'm not a stalker," said JP.

_Knock knock! Knock knock! _"Is anyone in there?"

"Yes, mom?" called Kouji and Kouichi.

Ms. Kimura's lilting voice called through the door. "I brought cookies!" she said. The smile could practically be heard in her voice.

"Mom, we don't want cookies," said Kouji.

Takuya immediately coughed obnoxiously. "Ech-hem, I'm sure all of us would like a plate of Ms. Kimura's lovely tasty treats. Especially Mr. Tubby over there..."

"Hey," said JP.

"Never mind, mom," said Kouji.

Ms. Kimura walked in with the tray of cookies. She handed them to Kouji, gave him a kiss, then left. JP was the first person to get up and get one… two… five.

"Told you he wanted cookies," said Takuya.

"Go to hell, Takuya," retorted JP.

"Okay, no need to get violent," said Takuya lightly. "So Kouji. About this plan thing. Where exactly are we going to look for a portal? It's not like a portal is just going to come to us, and being all like, 'hello! Look at me! I'm a portal!' It's going to be tricky to find. That's why I think we should look for Musyamon first, follow him, and then trap him. Then make him tell us where one is."

"No, Takuya," said Kouji, flatly.

"Why the hell not? And why are you telling us what to do? I'm the leader, remember?"

"Because someone needs to search the trains, look for more clues," said Kouji.

"Like that book you found? That was just trash," said Takuya.

"What book?" asked Kouichi.

"I found _Genji monogatari _on one of the trains when I went looking for the portal yesterday," said Kouji. "There was a note inside it from someone called Hideaki to someone called Aya."

"A love note isn't going to help us find a portal," said Kouichi.

"Who says it was a love note?" said Izumi.

Everyone looked at her.

"What do you mean?" asked Kouichi.

"It could've been another type of note, that's all I'm saying," saying Izumi, shrugging.

"You mean… like a suicide note?" said JP.

"You sick freak, why—" Takuya began.

"It wasn't a suicide note or a love note. It just said, meet me here seven-dash-nineteen, six PM," said Kouji.

"Seven-dash-nineteen? That's today!" said Takuya.

"What's the time?"

"Anyone got a watch?"

Kouji took out his cell phone. "It's 5:45," he said.

"We'll never make it there on time," said Takuya. "Damn it!"

"We'll take my car," said Kouichi.

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Takuya. "Only you can't actually drive it!"

"I can drive," said JP. "I just got my permit last month."

"I don't think that's such a good idea…" said Kouichi.

"Well it's the only plan we've got! C'mon, guys!" Takuya strode towards the door, wiping hair gel off on his jeans.

Izumi felt her hair. "My hair is a mess!" she lamented.

Ten minutes later, Takuya, Kouji, Kouichi, JP, Tommy, and Izumi ran into Shibuya Station. At this time of day, the station was crowded with rush hour traffic. It was difficult for them to get through the crowds without losing each other. They met at the cargo elevator and pressed the down button.

"Take the stairs!" said Takuya.

"Takuya, could you be any more insensitive?" barked Kouji.

"What?" asked Takuya.

"Last time we went down those stairs, someone almost died," said Kouji.

"Oh right. No offense Kouichi," said Takuya.

"None taken," said Kouichi.

The cargo elevator door opened. The group of six piled in. Someone pressed the 'B3' button. When the doors of the elevator closed, the inside of the elevator went silent.

"Doo, doo doo doo, diddly dum," Takuya hummed.

"What are you doing?" asked Izumi.

"Elevator music," he responded. "Doo-doo da dum."

The cargo elevator landed on the basement three floor. They went out.

"Woah, it's creepy in here," said Izumi.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" called Takuya.

"There's nobody here," said Kouji. He had a feeling he already knew that there was going to be no one here. "But I think we should hide. Just so that when they do come, we can listen to what they're up to."

"Good plan. Let's use it," said Takuya. "Let's go into that train over there, where we'll have the best vantage point."

They entered a red train which had only two compartments and no driver's cabin. The windows inside were covered in dust.

"This place is creepy," said Tommy.

"How are we going to see anything through these windows?" asked Izumi.

"If you rub your clothes against the window, you can make a circle you can see through," said Takuya. He was doing it already, to the nearest window. His red vest was caked with dust and grime, but there was a large clear circle he could see through.

The others went to the next five windows, cleaned them, and kneeled on the seats. Kouji, who was next to Takuya, said "It's six o'clock, and there's no one here."

"Shh! Someone's coming!" Izumi whispered.

Someone was coming down the staircase. There was a short shadow on the wall by the stairs. After a few more seconds, a short girl appeared. She had long dark brown hair that went to her waist, long side-bangs, and large hipster glasses. She was wearing a short black A-line skirt and a white blouse tucked into her skirt. She was wearing long white socks and black Mary-Jane shoes and a white messenger bag. Last of all, she was holding her cell-phone out into the air and waving it back and forth like she was saying hello.

The girl walked to the train opposite them, a green one.

"That's the train I went into the last time I was here," said Kouji under his breath.

They watched as the girl walked into the green train. She walked into the first compartment, walked down the compartment, then entered the second compartment. She stopped in the middle of the second compartment, walked half-way down it, then stopped. She kneeled down and disappeared from their view. After a few minutes, she stood up, walked back the way she came, and exited the train. Then she walked to the cargo elevator and pressed the up button. The cargo elevator doors opened. The girl quickly the elevator, and the doors shut.

They waited a while before getting up.

"Quick," said Takuya.

The others understood what he was saying immediately. They left the red train and hurried across the platform to the green train. They entered the second compartment.

There was a white piece of paper on the floor.

"Another note?" Kouji said. He walked forward and picked it up. His cobalt eyes skimmed over the words.

"Well? What's it say?" said Takuya.

"_Seven-dash-nineteen, six oh five. Hideaki. Sorry I couldn't come to your fete. I wish I could have seen you and Ling-Ling, but unfortunately I had quite a bit of business to take care of regarding my little brother Naruto! If I offended you or Ling-Ling, I'm very sorry. Much love, Aya._ It's just another love note," said Kouji, sounding disappointed. He threw the note to the ground.

"What are we going to do with it?" asked Izumi.

"Leave it there. Let Hideaki find it," said Kouji.

"Wait a minute. Do we really know who this Hideaki bloke is? What if Hideaki is a pedophile or something? Did you see that girl? She looked no older than us!" Takuya said.

"What are you saying?" asked Kouji.

"We should take the note, and completely end the relationship," said Takuya.

"You don't know if he's a pedophile…" said JP.

"But he could be!" said Takuya. "Does anybody get my point?"

"Yeah."

"Sure."

"Whatever."

Takuya took the note from the floor and folded it up. He put it in his jeans pocket.

"I don't know about you guys but I feel like having some expensive sushi and wild rice, with peanut chicken and warm shrimp sauce," said JP. "All this excitement is getting me hungry."

"Yeah, let's go," said Tommy.

Tommy and JP chatted about where they wanted to go for dinner, with the rest following behind them. At the restaurant, Sai's Diner, they had just finished eating a large meal. Sai's Diner was full this time of day, with it being a Saturday night. Takuya was sipping his cold green tea, when Izumi spoke up.

"It's too bad we didn't get to go to the beach like we planned," she said.

"What would you do at the beach?" asked Takuya.

"I'd play volleyball and get a tan," said Izumi, "and maybe buy a new hobo bag to go with that new skirt I bought last week at the mall, the striped one?"

Takuya's phone vibrated in his pocket. "Uh… hold on guys." He pulled it out. On the screen it read,

'TEXT FROM: BLOCKED'

Takuya opened the text and read through it.

"Uh… guys?" Takuya said.

"Yeah?" they said.

"I just got a text from Hideaki."

"What's it say?" They clamored around Takuya. JP and Tommy, who were sitting on the opposite side of Takuya, got out of their seats to look.

"_I know what you did, and I'm not pleased about it… you guys stole my letter and you stole the love of my life. You are going to pay. –Hideaki_"

"I think we made a big mistake," said Kouji. Everyone looked at each other wearily. The text was spooky, mysterious, and threatening. It was like, suddenly the group was in a mystery, and they hadn't even gotten to the Digital World yet. There were so many questions that needed to be answered.

* * *

The house was empty except for Saruchi. The darkness pervaded through the house. Saruchi went down the stairs and into the foyer, where the shoes were. She picked up her running shoes and put them on. Saruchi was wearing black leggings and a yellow camisole.

With iPod in hand, she went outside and locked the door. She tucked the house key into the back of her running shoe. It was dark out, and the stars were clearly visible. In the distance she could see the Tokyo skyline. She chose a song, _Take a Chance on Me _by Abba, and began to run.

_If you're all alone  
When the pretty birds have flown  
Honey I'm still free  
Take a chance on me  
Gonna do my very best  
And it ain't no lie  
If you put me to the test,  
If you let me try_

_Take a chance on me…_

_Take a chance on me…_

"Take—a– chance—on– me—" Saruchi sang in time to her strides. The air outside was humid and warm, like a warm blanket on her skin. There was nothing she loved more to do than go running, it was her escape. She loved running.

Mrs. Suzuki was sitting in a lawn chair outside her house. She looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps and saw a young woman with short white hair approaching her. She waved and said,

"Good evening! How are you?"

Saruchi slowed down. "I'm fine, Mrs. Suzuki! How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine."

"Glad to hear it! Well, gotta run!" Saruchi waved and passed by Mrs. Suzuki's home.

The sky was getting darker. Saruchi ran past her house for the fourth time when she decided to run outside of the neighborhood. She went outside of the neighborhood, past the gated wall, and ran out into the road. At the street corner ahead of her, there was a huddled black figure. Saruchi ran towards it, to see it clearer.

"Help… help…"

The noise seemed to be coming from the figure. Saruchi ran towards it.

"Help… help!" an old woman wearing sunglasses was huddled on the sidewalk.

"Old lady? What happened?" Saruchi asked of her.

"That man kicked me in the stomach and stole my purse!" the old woman pointed to Saruchi's right. Saruchi looked across the street and saw someone disappear into the bushes of someone's yard.

"Okay, wait right here, lady, I'll get your purse!" Saruchi took off in the direction of the purse-snatcher. The purse-snatcher wasn't far ahead of her. He kept running until he came to a fence separating two houses. Stuck, he turned around and around, looking for a way to get away. There was no way he could've escaped.

Saruchi was on them in a matter of seconds.

The purse-snatcher was an old man with a lot of wrinkles.

"Let me go! Let me go!" the man yelled.

"Or what? Purse-snatcher?" spat Saruchi. She took the little beaded bag away from the man and let go of him.

Once free, he put his hands up and slowly walked away, watching her.

"You're a little rat, aren't you?" he said.

"So what if I am? It's not like _you'd_ know," she said. She walked away.

She went back to the old lady. "Here's your purse, ma'am," she said.

The old lady smiled. "Thanks. Here's a little something for your trouble."

The old lady handed her a clear card case. "It's my grandson's. He doesn't play with them anymore, so he gave them to me to keep. But I don't need them. I'm too old to play card games," she said.

"Thanks," said Saruchi.

Saruchi returned to the house. The lights were on. She opened the door and entered the home. "Hello? Anyone home? Did someone bring food?" she called and kicked off her running shoes. Clutching the clear card case, her iPod, and the house key, Saruchi went into the kitchen where Takuya was sitting at the table. There were two take-out boxes on the table and a plastic bowl of miso soup.

"Honey, did you know that if you leave the toilet seat cover up when you flush, millions of tiny bacteria will splash all over the front of your legs? Or the back, for girls?"

"Eww!" Saruchi said. "You're gross."

"That's why I close the cover before I flush," said Takuya.

"Ugh," said Saruchi, walking to the bowl of miso soup. "Issat for me?"

"Yeah," he said.

"You're absolute rubbish for bringing back only this much food," said Saruchi, opening one of the take-out boxes.

"I brought you two whole boxes of shrimp ramen, and a side of miso soup!"

She went to the cabinet to get chopsticks and a spoon. "It's not enough, Takuya, it really isn't."

"If that's not enough, then you're a pig," said Takuya under his breath.

"News flash, Takuya. Do I look like a pig to you?" Saruchi sat down and began to eat. Takuya started texting on his phone.

"Hey, look at this," said Takuya.

"What?"

Takuya held up his phone. Saruchi leaned in. On his phone, the letters 'Y-E-S' were typed.

"I hate you," Saruchi said in mock sadness.

"So, barring any feelings of hate," said Takuya, "How do you feel?"

'_How do I feel about… what?_' Saruchi thought, having a mini-panic attack. She raised her head upwards and blinked at Takuya.

"How do I feel about what?" she said, slowly.

"You know…" Takuya said easily. "About missing the best time of your life. Not being able to go to the beach this weekend. Don't look at me like that. I'm just trying to be brotherly."

"Hurt. Peeved. Confused," Saruchi said. She didn't mention that she thought the latter part was a load of shit. Takuya only acted like a proper brother on Christmas. '_That's a good answer to that question, right?_' she thought.

"That's good. I'm glad you're not in a murderous rage right now," said Takuya.

"Really?" said Saruchi, suspiciously.

"Sure," said Takuya, "Because I wanted to ask you a favor."

Saruchi rolled her eyes. "Okay, what is it?"

"Can you stop doing my laundry? It's getting annoying when I put my stuff somewhere, and then you touch it, and then suddenly I can't find anything."

"All you had to do was ask," said Saruchi.

"Thanks," said Takuya.

The next day, Takuya and Shinya went out with their friends, leaving Saruchi alone at home. Saruchi invited Izumi, her classmate, over and they spent the day giving each other manicures and pedicures, gossiping, and generally being teenage girls, for once.

Saruchi was keeping time in her head, waiting for Takuya to come back home, so she could do her laundry. By six o'clock, Takuya wasn't home, so she decided that she'd better do his laundry, or else.

"I'll be waiting right here," said Izumi, flipping through a teen magazine.

Saruchi went to Takuya's room. Takuya's room was painted red. Posters of famous football stars like David Beckham and the Japanese national football team adorned the walls. The laundry basket was right by the door. There were clothes on the floor by the laundry basket: a pair of jeans, a pink shirt (Saruchi briefly wondered why Takuya owned a pink shirt), some socks, and a tie. She replaced them in the basket and went to the laundry room.

As she was turning the pockets inside out, a folded up piece of notebook paper fell out of one of the jeans she was fixing. She picked up the piece of paper and opened it.

Hideaki? Aya?

"Takuya, why are you messing with somebody's love note?" Saruchi shook her head and put the note on the dryer. She put the rest of Takuya's things into the washer and turned it on. She stood there for a moment, watching the water fill the washer, before shutting the washer door.

Saruchi went upstairs. Izumi was on her computer.

"Looking something up?" asked Saruchi.

Izumi turned around. She quickly shut what she was doing.

"No," she said, in an unusually high voice. "I-I mean, yeah."

"Oh, okay," said Saruchi, calmly. "Hey, I just got the new issue of Nylon, the Japanese fashion magazine. I read through it already, and there's tons of good stuff. There's an article on making your own skirts, and I tried to make my own, but it came out wrong. Want to look through the magazine with me?"

"Sure," said Izumi, "And while you're at it, let me see that skirt!"

After Izumi left, Saruchi quickly went to her computer, a Mac. She opened Firefox, clicked history, and went to the most recent site, a google search.

"Digimon? Isn't that a card game? Oh Zoey, why are you – wait a minute—"

Saruchi went to her cabinet and opened the top shelf. She rummaged around until she found what she was looking for: the clear card case. She opened the case and walked back to her computer. Inside the clear card case was a shiny blue card.

"This looks useless," Saruchi said to herself as she examined the card, "The strongest cards always have some sort of digimon on them. Actually, how would I know that?"

There was nothing on the card except a yellow D and a blue monster with yellow eyes coming out of the D. Saruchi looked on the other side. The other side had a sticky note.

_Stick the card in the disc drive._

"Hmm, 'kay," said Saruchi, removing the sticky note and placing it on the desk. She pushed the card inside the Mac. Suddenly, her computer made a series of whirring noises. Electricity shot out of the drive and crackled around the Mac. The screen went black.

"What the hell's going on?" Saruchi said. She tried to get the card out of the disc drive, but the computer was burning hot. "Shit!" The computer screen came back on. The screen was blue with black text.

D:\DIGICARD MODIFY  
DIGITIZATION ACTIVATE

A glowing white light blinded Saruchi. The light started on the screen, then spread to Saruchi's chest. The light spread from Saruchi's chest to the rest of her body until her skin and clothes were glowing white. Outside, lightning struck the house, causing a black out. Everything was dark except for Saruchi and the computer, which were glowing white. Then the light that was Saruchi merged with the light of the computer. The light that was Saruchi began to shrink. It got smaller and smaller until there was nothing except the glowing computer.

Then, the computer went dark.

Saruchi had disappeared.

* * *

**a/n 30 april 11:** Saruchi's gone, and the Spirit Kids have no foreseeable way to the Digital World. And where are Takato, Henry, and Rika? Did they have anything to do with Saruchi Kanbara's disappearance? Tune in next week to find out what happens!

Okay here's chapter four. I've been working on it all week. Hopefully it didn`t disappoint LOL. Okay… I hope you had fun… leave a review to let me know how I'm doing or how the story is going!


	5. The Digital World and the Mon Within

It was a quiet night that night, perfect for a romantic getaway. Ryo had stolen a bottle from Jenrya's private stash of fine and rare sake. Ruki had brought out one of the last containers of honey-milk shortbread cookies, which she had brought with her from the real world. Tonight, Ryo and Ruki were going to drink, eat, and be merry. Together.

Ryo poured sake into Ruki's glass until the glass was full, then poured some sake into his own glass until his own glass was full. Then he raised his glass in the air.

"To young love," said Ryo.

Ruki giggled at the childishness of his toast. "To young love!"

Ruki and Ryo clinked glasses and each took a large gulp. Then they joked around with each other for a bit, each joke funnier than the rest. They laughed until their stomachs hurt. When there was a lull in the conversation, Ryo looked up at the stars. Ruki looked over at him, her eyes looking down his body, the blush on her face evident.

"Ryo, You look so cute in your suit."

"Thanks." Ryo blushed. They sat in silence, then Ryo took a quaff from his glass and said, "Look at the moons, they're beautiful tonight."

Ruki looked skywards. Three huge orbs brightened the sky.

"Ryo?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you think the Digital World has three moons?"

Ryo tipped his head to the side. Then, he put down his glass and said, "Legend says that the three Digital moons are named after the three Ancient Rulers of the past. See the blue moon?"

"Yeah."

"The blue moon is called the Seraphimoon, named after Seraphimon. The red moon—" He pointed, "Is the Cherubimoon. It's named after Cherubimon. And the yellow moon is the Ophanimoon. It's named after Ophanimon."

"That's really interesting, Ryo. But that doesn't tell me why the moons are there in the first place," said Ruki sarcastically.

"Girl…you really think I would know that?"

"Yeah, I think you would. Let me just say you know everything about anything I ever need to know."

"I say the three digital moons are just data that were placed in space."

"Then what about the Big Bang?"

"There was no Big Bang. There was data, and there was a computer hacker."

"Probably Jenrya."

"He would do that," commented Ryo.

"He so would."

"_Alert. Alert._" Ruki's voice sounded loudly in their headsets. Ryo and Ruki made a surprised kind of eye contact, and then they touched the headsets they were wearing.

"Not now!"

Ryo just looked at Ruki, wondering if she wished they hadn't been interrupted just as much as he did.

_Alert. Alert. _

"We'd better find out what it is," said Ryo. Ruki nodded. They stood up from their seats and dragged the seats into Ruki's bedroom. Then, they carried the table, the sake, and the cookies into the bedroom. Then, when everything was inside, Ruki pressed a button and the balcony folded into itself and folded up against the building. The balcony would be invisible to anyone who tried to look for it from outside.

Ryo and Ruki left the room. They walked down the corridor to the main control room. The door across the room slid open, revealing Takato Matsuki.

_Alert. Alert._

"What's going on?" Takato asked, groggily. "Wait, were you guys together? When did _that_ happen?"

"None of your business. Get to your seats, we're on high alert," said Ruki.

Ruki went to her seat, a plush purple recliner, wore her visor-screen, and strapped herself into the seat. The other two did the same with their own equipment. Ruki tapped some keys on her keyboard as the recliner lifted her up three stories above the ground. The visor-screen came on. It took only a few seconds to boot up. When it finished booting it displayed '_Warning! Warning:_ _Virus has entered the system. Class: X._'

Ruki exclaimed with alarm, "Oh crap! There's been a Class X breach!" she pressed a few more buttons on her keyboard, wondering what the Wild One looked like.

"That's never happened before." Takato's voice sounded in her headset.

"What's the problem?" Jenrya asked, just now arriving at the main control room. "I heard the alarms go off."

"Class X breach!" _'Now uploading visual representation of virus to system.'_

"Meaning?"

"There's been a human invader!"

"Get me a visual, Ruki. Takato, put a tracker on so we don't lose him."

"Already on it," said Ruki.

"Sir," said Takato.

"What do I do?" asked Ryo.

"Wait for my command."

A picture began to load on their visor-screens. It loaded from the bottom-up.

'_White-hair … blue eyes… who is this girl?' _"Ruki, I want a full scan on her! Stat!"

Ruki gasped, "I'm trying, but there's no data on her."

"Then upload a Deletion Virus," snapped Jenrya. "Another human in the Digital World is something that just cannot happen."

"That's fine, but is it really necessary? I mean… do we need to erase her?" said Takato.

"It's too late to send her back! She passed through our firewall unharmed and digitization of her human form is complete. She'll arrive on the grid in T minus ten seconds," said Ryo.

"Takato! Tracking signal!"

"Already on it, sir—" said Takato.

"—good. We'll be able to find her no matter where she ends up—"

"T minus seven seconds," said Ryo.

"Tracking signal established. Uploading signal to the database."

"T minus four seconds."

The four watched the bottom corner of their visor-screens. A human-shaped figure was approaching a grid, getting nearer and nearer to the destination.

"T minus zero seconds. Target has arrived on the grid."

Ruki pressed enter. Her screen, with the picture of the girl, went blank. The picture was replaced by a red grid with holographic mountains, forests, and lakes. The grid rotated around, like Google Earth, and then it stopped and zoomed in quickly to one particular point in the middle of an ocean, three miles from the shore.

"Target is located in area Red."

"Meaning?" asked Jenrya.

"The Flame Zone."

Saruchi kicked faster and faster. Her lungs were burning for air. Suddenly she broke the surface of the water and gasped for air. Moments before, she had opened her eyes to find herself upside down in water. She had swam around for a little bit, regaining her sense of up and down. Now she was dripping wet, strangely warm, and treading water in the middle of the ocean.. She felt something heavy in her pocket. "Cell phone?" she muttered. It was probably ruined from all the water. Oh well, she'd have to get a new one when she reached home. She pulled out her phone from her pocket. The cell phone was off and completely drenched in water. She shook her phone to try to get the water out. Unexpectedly, her phone started glowing. The phone morphed into a device shaped like a pear. It was chocolate brown, the color of Takuya's hair, had a hot pink gripper, a square screen, and purple buttons.

"Okay, that's not odd. At all," said Saruchi. When the ordeal was over, Saruchi would choose this moment as the point from which she began explaining everything that happened to her as 'a dream'.

Curiously, she pressed the left button. When nothing happened, she started smashing all of the buttons, hoping something would happen. The device's screen lit up. A hot-pink-colored light emerged from the device and pointed straight out in front of Saruchi. On the screen, a compass showed that the light was pointing due north. This was a handy little device. Saruchi could have wondered what it was and where it came from, but first, she had to get to dry land. With that decided, she put the device in her mouth, and swam in the direction the light was pointing.

Saruchi was skinny, but she wasn't very athletic in water. The sun was high, beating down on the back of her neck like hot needles on her skin. By the time she had been swimming for an hour she was already tired and land was nowhere in sight. She heard wings flapping above her and she looked up. Above her, birds were flying in the direction she was swimming. Figuring she was close to shore, she stopped treading water and just floated. It was relaxing, but there was still the fear that she was going to drown out here. She felt like it would take forever to reach the shore. Her life, it seemed, was on the line.

"Help!" she called. "Anybody!" No one heard her. She figured that she would swim for a few hours more.

Three hours later, when Saruchi crawled onto the shore, she lay on the sand belly-up, thinking that it was a miracle she had swum so far. She lay on the sand for an hour before getting up and looking around. There were folded-up clothes just lying on the beach. She looked around, and thinking they belonged to nobody, she began to take off her shirt. A child's voice startled her.

"Hi there! culu~" said a shotaro voice.

"Ahhh! I wasn't stealing!" she screamed.

She looked around for the speaker. A little white-and-purple creature with huge ears and a triangle symbol on its forehead was peered at her from behind the bushes.

Without thinking, Saruchi approached it, making a "come here" motion with her hand.

"Come here, cutie, don't be shy…"

"I'm Calumon!"

"Hi, Calumon. I didn't know you could talk."

"All Digimon can talk in the Digital World! culu~" Calumon smiled.

"Are you saying this is the Digital World… and you're a digimon?"

"Sure thing!"

Saruchi considered this for a moment, and then turned around. "I'm going to change. Please stay where you are, and please don't look."

"I can do that!" Calumon had a way of talking that made every sentence sound like he was having the time of his life.

Saruchi changed her clothes. She wore brown Capri shorts, a pink (with a white star on it) top with white sleeves that showed her belly-button, brown socks, and white sneakers. The clothes fit her perfectly like they had been tailored for her. She left her wet clothes on the beach, including the skirt she had made by herself. She placed the device into the front pocket of her she was done, she turned to Calumon. "Okay, you can look now."

"Okay!" said Calumon.

"You know, you look funny, with your ears all huge, like an elephant," said Saruchi.

"What's an elephant?" asked Calumon.

"It's… never mind."

"Can elephants fly like me?" said Calumon. Calumon flapped his ears and hovered above Saruchi's head. To Saruchi, Calumon looked like a miniature flying poodle.

"Maybe on another planet," said Saruchi sarcastically.

"Not on this one! Calu~"

"So… are you magic?"

"No," said Calumon. "I'm one hundred percent real! The realest digimon you're ever going to meet!"

"Was I transported here magically?"

"Accidents don't happen in the Digital World!" said Calumon. "I know why you're here! You're here on a mission! A mission! You have to save the world from a virus! You have to make sure the dark, evil forces don't rise again, to terrorize us digimon! You're going to need a lot of help, calu~! You're going to need _me_!"

Saruchi put her finger in her ear and took it out, and looked at it. "That's very nice," said Saruchi, "But right now I need a way out, not a reason to stay."

"A way out?" Calumon's ears drooped. "You don't want to stay?"

"Well. I wish I could help, but I think I'd better go home."

"Then there's a way out over there calu~" Calumon pointed upwards and behind him. In the distance, beyond the tops of the trees was a giant mountain.

"So you're saying..."

"You jump inside the volcano, and it transports you to the real world!"

"That sounds crazy."

Calumon shrugged, as if to say '_go figure_'.

Saruchi thought about this for a moment. "Can you take me to the volcano?"

"Okay! Follow me calu~ There's a trailmon that can take us there!"

Calumon flew away into the forest. Saruchi looked unsure for a moment, but then she walked after him. They walked for about two hours, until they reached a small village. By that time, Saruchi was thirsty and hungry.

Calumon was mumbling to himself about trains and volcanoes. Saruchi said, louder, "Is there some place we can stop for a drink and food?"

"Oh, sure thing! There's a Burgermon stand not far away from here!"

"Good. I'm starving."

At the Burgermon stand, Saruchi ordered a Databurger and a Datashake. They were the only things on the menu, so it wasn't like she had much of a choice.

"What's in this burger?" she asked the little Burgermon.

"Data," said the Burgermon.

Saruchi unwrapped the burger and looked at it. It looked like a regular cheeseburger. "Looks like a cheeseburger to me. Just like back home." She took a bite out of it. "Tastes like one too," she said, in between chews. The Datashake tasted like a strawberry milkshake.

"Databurgers are the best," said Calumon vacantly. "Excuse me sir? When does the trailmon to the volcano leave?" asked Calumon.

"Five minutes," said Burgermon.

The train whistle sounded. Calumon motioned for Saruchi to follow him. He led her to the train station, where a red Trailmon was waiting on the tracks. The Trailmon was empty. So was the station, yet a red dragon was sleeping on one of the benches

"Get in," said Calumon.

"Me?"

"Yeah. I think I have to go now," said Calumon, looking sideways at the dragon creature as if he was distracted. "Take the trailmon all the way up culu~. Tell him not to let you off until you reach the top culu~. Good luck!"

Saruchi threw the wrapper and empty cup into the nearest trash can like a savvy environmentalist, and then went onboard the train. She chose a seat in the first compartment. The trailmon was empty except for her, but it smelled like ashes, like someone had recently extinguished a fire. Moments later, the Trailmon's whistle blew, and the Trailmon started moving slowly towards the mountain. Saruchi looked outside the window. She saw Calumon poking the dragon. Calumon was so cute, she wished she could keep him, but she had to go home now. She'd much rather be home than in the "Digital World". _This is just a dream,_ she reminded herself. _None of this actually happened._ Soon Calumon disappeared from her view and instead of a train station she was looking at trees moving past her. Later still, she was looking at the rocky terrain of the base of a mountain. She felt the gravity shift. Suddenly, she was sliding down her seat as the Trailmon climbed the steep mountain. She bumped into the edge of the seat and held on to the railing fearfully. Suddenly, she heard the sound of a door opening; she turned her head around to look. A seven-foot-tall yellow fox standing on its hind legs! Saruchi pushed herself backwards in shock.

"What are you doing here?" asked Saruchi.

"Hello," said the fox, "My name's Renamon, and I've come to capture you."

Saruchi looked at Renamon, not understanding a word she was saying.

"My tamer Ruki asked me to bring you back to Steel Fortress, which is where my tamer lives. You'll be detained and examined. You won't be harmed."

"That's okay. I'm going home," said Saruchi.

Trailmon suddenly swerved to the left and Renamon flew to the right and hit the right wall with a sickening thud.

"Are you okay?" asked Saruchi, caringly. She felt like she needed to care, even though she didn't know Renamon

Renamon glared at Saruchi. "You don't have to ask."

Uncomfortably Saruchi looked outside the window opposite from her. They were traveling at a fast speed over a steep slope. Saruchi could see the tiny village, the beach a little bit farther away, and the ocean just after the beach.

"I'm presuming Trailmon is taking us to the station on top of the mountain," said Renamon.

_It's not a mountain. It's a volcano. _"That's what I was told."

"When we arrive, I'm going to need you to stay calm as I take you hostage. Nobody needs to get hurt."

The two glared at each other for a few tense seconds. Saruchi didn't like this Renamon, she seemed like a very unpleasant digimon to be around. She wondered if Renamon was always like this, or if something had happened to make her be like this.

Trailmon rounded a bend and gravity returned back to normal. The Trailmon began to slow down. _There's no way Renamon's going to take me anywhere. Not when I'm so close to home._ Saruchi thought of ways she could escape. Trailmon slowed to a stop.

"Can you tell me what you're doing here?" asked Renamon.

"In your dreams," said Saruchi. And then the door opened and she was out of the trailmon like a shot.

"I think I'm crazy—I think I'm crazy—I think I'm crazy—" Saruchi yelled as she sprinted, as hard as she could, out of the trailmon, then out of the train station. Saruchi looked behind, and when she saw Renamon running so quickly she was just a blur she sprinted even harder. In two seconds, Renamon caught Saruchi around the waist and lifted her up off the ground.

_So much for that._ "Let me go!" Saruchi yelled.

"That was a nice trick you did there missy, but it won't work again," said Renamon icily. "You're coming with me." Renamon wrapped her arms around Saruchi's torso. Renamon's arms were like a vice; Saruchi couldn't slip away.

Saruchi tried to kick free but it didn't work. _Think… let's think of a story to distract her. _ "So you're probably wondering…" she said. "Why I tried to run away."

"No," said Renamon.

_Time to beg. _"Please let me go, Ranamon! I have to go home and see my family!" Saruchi stopped kicking against Ranamon

Renamon looked at her. "That is none of my concern right now," she said coldly.

Saruchi looked ahead. The mouth of the volcano was so close. If only she had help… _help!_ If there was anything that could help her, the mysterious device could, like it did when she was in the ocean! Saruchi reached into her pocket and grabbed the device, pulling it out of her pocket. She started pushing buttons with her thumb.

"Help!" Saruchi called.

"Fireball!" called a man's voice. But it wasn't a man – it was a curious creature shaped like a man, but covered in flames, climbing out of the mouth of the volcano. A ball of fire was coming straight at Renamon and Saruchi.

Renamon threw Saruchi aside. Saruchi's face hit dirt, hard. Renamon rolled away to stop the impact. The fireball vanished into thin air.

"You," said Renamon. "I know you. Meramon. You saved us… a long time ago," said Renamon.

"I've always wanted to go to the real world," said Meramon.

Saruchi sat up, her right cheek stinging from the impact. She brushed her hand on it, and her hand came away with blood all over it. "You could've saved me instead of yourself, you know!" Saruchi yelled at Renamon, misunderstanding Renamon's intentions.

"How did you know we were here?" Renamon snarled at Meramon. Talking was the last thing she wanted to do, but she spat the words out. Just to keep Meramon talking.

"I got a phone call telling me to let a human girl jump into my volcano," said Meramon. "The human girl wants to go to the real world. Just like me. Isn't that something, to meet someone who has the same interests as you? The thing is, I don't know if that's okay…you see, I got _another _phone call, from Steel Mansion… a very interesting phone call, telling me to _catch _a human girl. The whole situation was very interesting…" Meramon's cold blue eyes flicked over to Saruchi. Saruchi shivered; his eyes seemed menacing. "So the question now is this. Should I let her free, or should I catch her? That's the question…what do you think, Renamon? What do you think I'd get in return for returning a human to Steel Mansion?"

"You're not getting your filthy hands on her," Renamon said, crouching down into fighting position. Her fists were raised and her stance was wide. "I found her first. The girl is mine to keep."

"Then maybe I could kill her. The last human I caught died an ugly death. He didn't like being burned from the inside out…"

"You're going to have to let me go," said Saruchi, scared for her life now that she had two very dangerous digimon trying to catch her. Meanwhile, she kept hoping that this was a dream, that there was any possible way that this—this _nightmare_ was not real.

"She has an opinion!" Meramon turned to Saruchi. "Human, what about us? What about doing me a little favor… I've been trying to get to the real world for quite some time now… but, unfortunately, the volcano won't let me go through… maybe it'll let you through, and you can take me with you?" asked Meramon.

'_What am I going to do/ Quick! Think of something!_' Saruchi stood up, reached into her pocket and pulled out the mysterious device that had replaced her cell phone. She held it high and pointed it at Meramon.

"Leave me alone, or I'll – I'll use this!"

"A D-Power," said Renamon, in wonder. Her eyes widened like she was staring at something she had been looking for for a long time.

Meramon laughed raucously. "Are you going to _throw_ that at me? It'll burn right to a piece of plastic!"

"I'll – I'll—" Saruchi stammered.

"Nice try, but this mon is done playing. Magma Bl—!"

"I'll call for help!" Saruchi said, "Help!"

Meramon laughed again. "So that's it, then? Not even a fight, or anything? Magma—"

"Stop right there!" yelled a young male's voice.

A small orange-red digimon about the size and shape of a human-sized teddy-bear came running up to them, as fast as he could, waving his arms. "Stop right there, Meramon!" He had a yellow nose, gray eyes, golden nails on his feet, a golden tuft of hair on his chest. His tail was on fire and so was his forehead. Around his wrists were silver bracelets with a red-and-gold symbol attached to them. The same symbol burned brightly on his forehead.

Meramon turned to look at the digimon. "Coronamon."

"Stop hurting these innocent people!" Coronamon yelled. "Where were you, you were supposed to come and help me move rocks! Take this, you idiot! Corona Flame!"

Coronamon shot a fireball from his forehead, aimed at Meramon. Meramon held up his hand and absorbed the flame into his flaming arm. Saruchi looked around and gasped; Renamon was behind her with a finger to her lips.

"Don't make a sound," Renamon hissed. She wrapped her arms around Saruchi, and Saruchi shoved them away. Suddenly seeing an opportunity, she screamed as loud as she could so that Coronamon and Meramon would look her way. The feuding digimon turned to look at Saruchi, their expressions surprised on Coronamon's part, begrudging on Meramon's part.

"Why's there a human here?" asked Coronamon.

"I was just showing her around," said Meramon. "Come here, human."

Saruchi walked towards Meramon, and Renamon made no effort to stop her. Surprisingly. As Saruchi got closer to Meramon and Coronamon, the air around her began to feel warmer. For a moment Saruchi wished she had short sleeves.

"Saruchi, do you want to go back to the real world?" asked Meramon.

"Of course," Saruchi said quietly.

"Follow me, then, human." Meramon walked away towards the crater of the volcano. Saruchi walked after him. So did Renamon and Coronamon. When they reached the crater, Saruchi looked into it.

"If I jump into the crater, will it take me back to the real world?" asked Saruchi. She felt very much like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.

"Yes, it will," said Meramon. "And since I've got things to do today according to Coronamon over here, I'll even let you go without me. No trouble, no harm done."

"Thanks." Saruchi smiled. "I owe you one." Saruchi turned back towards the crater and began to climb down the rock. There were loose rocks everywhere, and she almost slipped on one. Soon enough, she was a good twenty feet into the crater and she could only see the tops of Coronamon, Meramon, and Renamon's heads. "Just a little bit farther… just a little bit farther…" she said to herself, muttering under her breath. Just then she stepped on a loose rock and slipped. "Woah!" she yelled, sliding on her butt down the crater. The temperature was getting warm and sweat slid down her forehead as she slid, and then a large rock appeared in front of her and there was pain and heat and blue and purple lights.

* * *

**jxn!enote 7 may 2011: **woah, I hope that didn't hurt or anything, saruchi! What is Steel Fortress? who runs it? Will Saruchi get back to the real world? Find out in the next chapter of Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses. (next chapter comes next week!)

Meanwhile I was wondering if you, the reader, knows a lot about computer stuff. not internet stuff, like CSS and Java, just about hardware and the inside of the computer and stuff. If you do please PM me as it's very critical to the story. thanks =^-^= dont forget to leave a review, so i know what i'm doing wrong and right and stuff. And about the Calumon thing, that's just a silly thing Calumon does (the culu~! thing) isn't it cute? WELL I THINK ITS CUTE. Yeah. :D

**utsukushii04** - thank you for the review! i must say i worked hard on their characterization so Im glad you say that!


	6. It's a Small World

_Jxn!enote: hello all. Im beginning to write in a more relaxed style. Hopefully that will make people review. Also if I don't get reviews for this chapter, I won't update the story anymore. Just saying._

**Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses**

"_There is just one moon  
And one golden sun  
And a smile means  
Friendship to ev'ryone  
Though the mountains divide  
And the oceans are wide  
It's a small world after all…"_

_It's a Small World - Disney_

************ **In a classroom in Suginami…

"My wife never calls me honey," lamented Mr. Watanabe. "When I get home from work, she always calls me 'Baka, Take Out the Trash!'"

The students laughed at their teacher. One plucky student asked,

"Excuse me, Watanabe-san. Wouldn't you want to be called baka?"

"Err…" the students said, not getting it.

"Hey, maybe Watanabe-san should bring her flowers one day."

"There's an idea," Mr. Watanabe adjusted his glasses. "Does anyone else have any other ideas? I don't. That's for sure."

"Here's a good idea. Go on a game show to prove your love—"

"—win some money—" another student continued.

"—and buy her a trip on a cruise ship! Sea of Japan, here we come!" yet another student finished.

"The only way I can get to the Pacific Ocean on an expensive cruise ship is if my father died now and left me 1 million yen in his will," Mr. Watanabe said with a degree of sadness.

Everyone laughed at the preposterous idea of a poor teacher owning 1 million yen.

"One million yen!"

"Mr. Watanabe wants one million yen!"

"Watanabe-san, find the area under the graph of one million x cubed minus 1!" a cocky boy asked.

"Find the zeros of one million x cubed." Mr. Watanabe fired back.

"Is that a challenge?" yelled the cocky boy brashly.

"Maybe," he teased his students. "Now get to work."

There was a brief silence as students plugged the equation into their graphing calculators. Kouichi decided that the activity was pointless and so his graphing calculator remained in his bag.

"I can't see it on my graphing calculator!" a girl whined.

"And that's where we stop talking about yen and my wife and start talking about math." Mr. Watanabe said decisively. Mr. Watanabe turned on the projector and he started discussing differential calculus.

Bored, Kouichi zoned out. After a few minutes, a white piece of notebook paper landed on his desk. Looking around to find the owner, Kouichi saw his friend Hachiro waving at him. Kouichi opened the note.

'_Look at the girl to your right. Hot stuff! Wanna talk to her for me?' _Hachiro had written in neat handwriting.

Kouichi looked to his right. A lanky girl with straight, long black hair and big eyes was bent over her notebook and scribbling furiously. She was wearing a black mini-dress with leather trim on the bottom and on the sleeves. She was also wearing a long chain with a crucifix on it and black combat boots.

Kouichi wrote back,

'She looks like a model.'

'_I know. Please talk to her._'

'I'm not talking to her for you, though. It'd be weird for me.'

'_Please! I'll give you 5 dollars.'_

Kouichi smirked at the pitifulness of the request. 'You sure are desperate. I'll talk to her after class.'

********** In front of the Minamoto home…

Saruchi rang the doorbell of the Minamoto home. When no one answered, she walked to a spot on the grass and yelled through the first floor window which was open.

"Open this door! It's Saruchi!"

After a few seconds, the wooden door opened.

"Hello? Saruchi, is that you?" asked Kouji, opening the door just a little bit.

"Yes, it's me, can I come in? I have to talk to you, now," she said.

"Okay. I have to meet Kouichi soon so hopefully this is quick"

"It will be, I promise."

"Sure, that's what you say," Kouji said to himself as he opened the door wider.

********** In the Minamoto rec room…

"I didn't know who to tell. I thought you'd be the only person who would take me seriously." Saruchi said. "But you probably won't anyway."

"I'd always take you seriously." Kouji took her hand in his. Saruchi went scarlet.

"Something happened to me, Kouji."

"Did somebody hurt you?" Kouji asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"No, no, nothing like that"

"Then what?"

"Well here's the truth. Whatever I said earlier, now I believe Kerpymon isn't your girlfriend." Saruchi looked at Kouji with fire in her eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"What if I told you that Digimon were real and that I've met one?"

"Then I'd tell you you were being crazy." Kouji responded, searching Saruchi's eyes for a hint she was just joking around.

********** Outside of cram school… (A/N: cram school is basically like summer school)

After class let out, Kouichi and Hachiro followed the cute girl, trying to get up the balls to talk to her.

"I'm telling you, just talk to her!"

"I can't talk to her, you have to do it for me. I'm bad at talking to girls."

"If you say so," said Kouichi, rolling his eyes.

"Shoot!She's looking this way!"

The cute girl turned around, and her eyes lit up with recognition. Hachiro started walking away in the opposite direction when Kouichi grabbed his arm. "Stay here," he said.

When the cute girl got closer to them Kouichi said smoothly, "Hello, darling. I think I've seen you somewhere before..,perhaps cram school." The girl nodded, smiling. Kouichi turned up the charm, "When you did that problem on the board, I was so impressed. You must be really good at differential calculus."

The smiling girl spoke up. She had a melodic voice, "That was nothing. You should see me when I do my homework. I get my problems done so quickly."

Hachiro was looking at the girl with sparkly eyes.

"What's your name?" she asked Hachiro. Hachiro, lost in his love, said nothing.

"This is my friend, Hachiro Hayashi. I'm Kouichi Kimura. What's yours?"

"Teddy Cheong. I'm from China," she added, seeing the looks on their faces.

"Oh! As in Cheong Hotels?" Kouichi asked, remembering that the Cheong Hotel was where he had stayed when he and his family went to Hokkaido two summers ago.

"Yeah. My great-great grandfather started his first Cheong Hotel in Hong Kong, Beijing, and 3 other cities in China. My great grandfather built hotels in Japan, Europe, and America. My father is the current CEO of the company." Teddy explained.

Hachiro and Kouichi gave each other a look that said, _Hot and rich!_

"Oh, I hope I didn't give you guys too much information." Teddy smirked.

"It's no problem. Are you really the heiress of Cheong Hotels?" Hachiro asked curiously.

"That appears to be my sad, sad fate," Teddy said, shrugging. "So what are you guys doing here?"

"Walking home," Kouichi and Hachiro replied at the same time.

"Oh. I thought you were doing something peculiar like following me." Teddy said.

Kouichi shook his head vehemently and Hachiro said, "N-no, whatever gave you that idea?"

"I dunno, sometimes I just feel things like that. So… I don't normally do this… but you guys are cute, and, well. Would you—would you?" Teddy blushed, she couldn't get the words out.

"Want to get a drink?" Hachiro blurted out.

"I'd love to," Teddy said, smiling.

'_Well done, Hachiro,_' thought Kouichi.

**********In the Minamoto rec room…

"So you see, I think there's something magical going on." Saruchi finished.

Kouji got an excited flash in his cobalt eyes. "You have to tell Takuya and the others."

"Others?" questioned Saruchi.

"There's something I haven't told you," said Kouji. "I've been to the Digital World before. Me, Takuya, Kouichi, JP, Tommy, and Izumi all have."

"When?" whispered Saruchi.

"We went on your younger brother's birthday four years ago."

Saruchi let out a long, low whistle. She was shocked at what Kouji was telling her. And yet, in some strange way, she believed Kouji. She remembered that summer , the things that had confused her for so long stood out: Takuya transforming from a lazy student in the spring to a not-as-lazy student in the fall, his nicer treatment of his twin and younger brother, and the sudden arrival of Kouji, Kouichi, JP, Tommy, and Izumi.

Kouji's phone rang. He pulled it out his pocket and picked it up.

"Hello?"

**********At a café in Suginami…

"_Ki zukanai furi wo shite _

_Chiisana mado kara tooku wo mitsumeteta _

_Sora ni hirogaru tenshi no koe—"_

"Oh. My phone is ringing." Kouichi pulled his phone from his pocket. "Hello?"

An unknown voice answered. "_Legendary Warrior of Darkness. This is Hideaki Rill. I would be honored to meet you at Myoshoji Park this afternoon.'' _Kouichi judged the owner of the voice to be an older teenage boy.

"Um. Okay." he said, despite thinking that he shouldn't be talking to a stranger. Glancing at Teddy he pushed that thought out of his mind.

"_Bring your friends, your fellow Legendary Warriors, the people who came with you the other day. And one more thing, you'll know it's me because I'll call you the Legendary Warrior of Darkness. Can you meet me in an hour?_"

Kouichi looked at the time on his cell phone – it was 5 PM. "I will."

"_Good_." The voice said, then the phone made a click noise and went off.

'_That was strange._' Thought Kouichi, looking at his phone, but he quickly dismissed it. "Uh guys?"

"What?"

"Yeah?"

"I gotta go."

********** 5 minutes later

Kouichi said good bye and turned around to walk in the opposite direction. Then he made five quick calls to Kouji, Izumi, Takuya, JP, and Tommy to meet him in Myoshoji Park as soon as possible. He wondered how Hideaki Rill had gotten his cell phone number, but then he decided it wasn't important.

********** Outside Myoshoji Park

Kouichi was leaning against the brick wall, letting the wind tousle his long black hair. He was thinking about Teddy, who he remembered as cute despite her teddy bear addiction. Suddenly he noticed his shoelaces were untied. As he leaned down to tie his shoe he heard footsteps approaching. Kouichi looked up into his mirror image plus a bandana. "Kouji," said Kouichi, "Hey."

Kouichi held out his hand and Kouji held out his, and they did their super-secret special handshake. When that was done, Kouji joined him on the wall.

"I just made a terrible mistake, and I hope you'll forgive me," Kouji said gruffly.

"Brother, what is it? Surely it can't be that bad," Kouichi said kindly.

"I can't tell you. It's too horrible." Kouji muttered.

"Tell me," Kouichi said with a hint of authority in his voice.

"It's Saruchi, Takuya's twin sister," Kouji said.

"What about her..?" Kouichi searched his brother's eyes, looking for a sign. "Is she alright?"

"…I probably shouldn't tell anyone."

"You should probably tell me," corrected Kouichi. "You know you can tell me anything. I'm your brother. I won't tell."

"What about that time—"

"Doesn't matter."

Kouji sighed. Kouichi was going to kill him, mutilate him, or worse, steal his loved bandana. "I told Saruchi we went to the Digital World."

"You what?" Kouichi was shocked.

"She's been there before. She went there yesterday, and she saw some digimon – calumon, renamon, a fire digimon— and stuff."

Kouichi sat in a shocked silence for a while, then finally, he spoke. "But how did she get there?"

"Through her computer."

Kouichi shook his head. "I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?" Kouji asked hopefully.

"She was going to find out anyway," Kouichi said. Then suddenly he got an idea, "Hey, you think she met—"

"No, she didn't meet Kerpymon." Kouji read his brother's mind.

"Damn."

"I knoow," said Kouji.

"That could've helped!" Kouichi cried.

"Yeah. A lot," said Kouji.

The twins went silent, each thinking. For a minute, all was silent. Kouji clapped his hands. At the same time Kouichi pounded his fist on his palm.

"Hey do you think that maybe it has something to do with Kerpymon?" they said at the same time.

At that moment JP ran noisily towards them. "Hey guys! Guys! I'm not late!"

"Hey, JP," the twins chorused in a bored tone.

"I've got snacks!" JP pulled out what else—chocolate – from his jeans pocket and gave one each to Kouji and Kouichi. He greedily saved two for himself.

"Thanks," Kouji and Kouichi said, unwrapping their chocolate.

"Did you see anyone on your way here, JP?" asked Kouji.

"No. I came from my cousin's house, so there's no way I would've met anyone," JP said. Noticing Kouichi's dour expression, JP said, "What's up with you?"

"It's nothing," Kouichi said. Kouji gave his brother a look, asking, _Should we tell him?_ Kouichi gave Kouji a look back saying, _He can find out later._ JP rolled his eyes at the sight, it was almost as if they were doing twin telepathy or something.

'You guys are extra creepy today.' thought JP, but he said nothing.

Just then he saw Takuya and Tommy walking towards the park entrance, each with a popsicle in their hands.

"Hey," Takuya said.

"Hi guys!" Tommy exclaimed. Upon closer inspection, JP noticed their tongues were the colors of their popsicles.

"Yo Kouichi," Takuya said, toughly. "What's the big idea, calling us all the way over to Suginami (A/N: Suginami is one of 23 special wards of Tokyo. It's immediately west of Shibuya which is where everyone but Kouichi lives.)?"

"Someone told me to call you guys to this park." Kouichi said.

"Who?"

"Him?" Tommy said, pointing behind JP. Everyone looked.

A young man taller than Kouji approached the entrance of Myoshoji Park, wearing a black leather jacket, black ripped jeans, and a white shirt underneath. He was carrying a black laptop case, which looked heavy with its contents. His gelled dark blue hair grazed the top of his Gucci sunglasses. An air of mystery hung about this man, and when he saw the DigiDestined, he walked up to Kouichi.

"Warrior of Darkness." he said, holding a gloved hand out to Kouichi. "My name is Hideaki Rill."

Kouichi shook Hideaki's hand. "Nice to meet you, Rill."

"I didn't expect to meet you here today, but circumstances arose, and I found it imprudent to postpone our meeting any longer." Hideaki bowed his head politely.

"I wasn't expecting it either. By the way, how did you get my number?" Kouichi demanded.

"Oh, I used a phonebook," Hideaki replied.

"…a phone book…" Kouichi said dryly.

"…You must be the other Legendary Warriors," Hideaki said to Takuya, Kouji, Tommy, and JP.

Takuya grinned and held out his hand. "Hey bu-dee, I'm—"

"Hang on! How do we know we can trust him?" Kouji said harshly.

"He called us the Legendary Warriors! How untrustworthy could he be?" Takuya exclaimed.

"We don't know. What if he's the enemy?" said Kouji pointedly.

"Then he is. It's not like he's going to kill us. I'd take him in a fight." JP looked over Hideaki from head to toe, as if confirming this to himself. "Besides, he called Kouichi the Warrior of Darkness. How many enemies do you know that know that?"

"JP's right. This is a sign." Takuya said passionately.

The others looked at Takuya with confused looks on their faces. "How?" they asked.

"We've been contacted by Kerpymon.. and now by Rill. If anything, I'd say the Digital World needs our help. Right?" Takuya looked at Hideaki, asking him a question with his eyes.

Hideaki nodded. "He's correct. There are things wrong with the Digital World once again. It has been a thousand years since you guys last saved the world. And Kouji, don't worry. I assure you I am of the highest good the Digital World has to offer." Hideaki said very sincerely. Kouji scowled at him, untrusting.

"I'm just saying, I don't think this is a good idea." Kouji said.

"Well, no offense, but you don't think anything that makes progress is a good idea" Takuya said.

"Tch, that's because your idea of progress is—"

"Get to the important part… why is the Digital World in danger?" Tommy said.

"Can I know your names first?" asked Hideaki, cocking his head to the side.

"I'm Takuya Kanbara, bu-dee, nice to meet ya!"

"I'm JP Shibayama."

"I'm Kouji Minamoto."

"And I'm Tommy Himi!"

A girl's voice yelled, "Ciao! Mi dispiace! Mi dispiace!" Izumi came running swiftly towards them. In her hands was an unwrapped cheeseburger.

"Sorry I'm late!" she said, her voice sounding out of breath.

"Where were you?" Takuya asked, looking pointedly at Izumi's food.

"Um. I got hungry," Izumi explained.

"Izumi, meet Hideaki. Hideaki, meet Izumi." Takuya said.

"Ciao!" Izumi said in a friendly tone.

"Are you Italian?" asked Hideaki curiously.

"Half," Izumi said with a faint air of pride.

Hideaki nodded with a look in his eyes that said he understood. "You are an Italian princess."

"Me?" Izumi said, pointing at herself. She wouldn't describe herself as a princess, more like a peasant. "Uh…"

"The Digital World?" asked Tommy, impatiently. The DigiDestined looked at Tommy; they didn't expect that kind of behavior from Tommy, he was a sweet little kid to them.

"Let's go to a more secure area, so I can explain more." Hideaki said, beginning to walk away from the DigiDestined.

**********In Myoshoji Park

The DigiDestined and Hideaki were sitting in a circle in a secluded area of the park. There were no people around at all. Behind them was a great tree that gave them shade. Once they got comfortable, Hideaki cleared his throat and spoke.

"Okay, but this is a long story that goes back a long time. I'm not the best person to tell it, either, but I'll try to do the best I can. Here's the story, which is also known as the Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses: Long ago, before you guys came to the Digital World, there were ten Legendary Warriors and two Sentinel Goddesses. The Sentinel Goddesses guarded the ten Legendary Warriors' DigiCores. This has nothing to do with the story, but it's important for you guys to know that every digimon has a DigiCore, and the DigiCores are usually contained within a Digimon and they're quite stable. Unfortunately the DigiCores of the ten Ancient Warriors were highly malleable and volatile as well as located outside of their bodies. If any evil digimon accessed the ten Ancient Warriors' DigiCores and edited or damaged the data within them, then the Legendary Warriors would cease to exist. So, the Sentinel Goddesses kept guard over the ten Ancient Warriors' DigiCores so no one would attack them. During the war between beast digimon and human digimon, legend says the Sentinel Goddesses disappeared from the Digital World when nobody was watching them, leaving behind a very important item called the Miracle Key. Got it so far?"

"Sure we get it." they chorused.

"Good. So now, the Digital World needs your help to find the Miracle Key. A hundred years after you guys won the war against Lucemon and Cherubimon, something, a virus, began to turn good digimon into evil versions of themselves Digimon." Hideaki paused and looked at them. The atmosphere was tense and silent.

"The evil versions of these Digimon are causing chaos in the world. So it's up to you, the Legendary DigiDestined, to help me find the last two DigiDestined so they can come with me to the Digital World and find, or recreate, the Miracle Key which will erase the virus and turn evil digimon to good ones again."

"How can we recreate the Miracle Key?" Kouji, who had been listening intently, asked.

"Well… we need two special items."

"Which are?"

"The last two Digidestined." Hideaki's voice became louder with determination.

The DigiDestined gasped.

"But who are the last two DigiDestined?" asked Izumi.

"I'll show you guys today. That's why I have called this first meeting. In fact, I will take you to them right now."

"Really?" asked the DigiDestined excitedly.

"Of course…" Hideaki smiled that handsome, winning smile.

***********Downtown Suginami, in front of a supermarket

"I need to get something for Teddy. I'll be right out." Hideaki said mysteriously. He entered the supermarket alone.

"Hideaki seems like a pretty cool guy," said Takuya.

"He's kind of dark," said Izumi.

"You noticed?"

"Imagine him stalking us all this time." JP said. "Scary, huh?"

"You're one to talk," scoffed Takuya.

"I'm standing right here," JP pointed out.

"Oh, really!" said Takuya in a high voice.

"I'm glad we have him here," said Kouji. "After all that searching yesterday, we couldn't find an entrance to the digital world, now that Hideaki's here it's going to be easy."

"I don't understand." Tommy said.

"He knows how to get to the Digital World," Kouji explained.

"He isn't the only one," said Kouichi conspiratorially, but Kouji shot him a look telling him to be quiet. The others looked at the twins confusedly.

"What's that?" asked Izumi.

Kouji and Kouichi turned red, from almost being found out. "No-nothing."

"When Hideaki was explaining, I didn't fully understand some parts," said JP. "Kouji, I know you were listening. Can you go over it again?"

"Okay." Kouji said. He explained what Hideaki had said. While he and JP were talking, Izumi turned to Takuya.

"You know, something still bothers me."

"What, Izu-chan?" Takuya asked, using the more familiar name to show he was trustworthy.

"Well," Izumi began, holding her chin with one hand, "After Kouji got that urgent message from Kerpymon, Kerpymon never sent another message again. Time passes faster in the Digital World, so it's probably been months in Digital World time, since Kerpymon sent that message…"

"…so…" Takuya said, sensing she wasn't finished.

"So…when we go back to the Digital World we should try to find Kerpymon as soon as possible. Something dreadful must have happened to him." suggested Izumi.

"Oh." Takuya said. "Okay, that's a good idea."

**********15 minutes later

Hideaki came out of the supermarket carrying a round cake decorated with brown icing. It was the size of two of his palms put together. "It's for someone," he explained shortly. The DigiDestined nodded, feeling that it was best not to ask further. "Ready to go?"

"Yes," the others said.

They walked to the train station and took a train to downtown. It was 6:30, and rush hour was in full throes. They walked a few blocks from the train station. Hideaki stopped in front of the entrance of a sky scraper.

"Where are we?" asked Kouji.

"Wait… I recognize this place… no, don't tell me. This is Cheong Hotel!" Kouichi exclaimed. He couldn't believe that they were here, after his talk with Teddy earlier in the afternoon. Hideaki sensed his shock and asked, "Yes, this is Cheong Hotel, why, do you know someone here?"

"The girl who is poised to become the CEO of this hotel chain goes to my cram school," said Kouichi.

"Is her name Teddy Cheong, by any chance?" asked Hideaki.

"Well, yeah. It is. How'd you know?"

"Just a guess," said Hideaki smugly.

"Are we going to go in?" asked Tommy.

They walked into the hotel.

**********Inside the Cheong Hotel

The inside was fancy with red carpet and gold-lined ceilings. There were stone statues of Chinese gods lining the walls. Looking around, there was a dining area to the right where suited men and dressed up women were reading newspaper, drinking hot tea out of china cups, and eating coffee cake. To their left was a huge parlor with chairs and two huge fireplaces, as well as two elevators with gold doors. Above, there was a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. (A/N: if any of you have ever been to one of the Hilton Hotels, well just picture the hotel as that) The woman at the front desk looked up when she saw them approach.

"Hello, welcome to Cheong Hotel. How may I help you?" the receptionist asked politely.

"Good afternoon, madam. I'm here to see Theodora," said Hideaki just as politely. "And these are her friends," Hideaki continued, waving pointedly at the DigiDestined.

"I see. Why are you here?" asked the receptionist.

"Well, we came to give her a surprise party."

The woman glanced at the cake in Hideaki's hands. "One moment, please," she said. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. The person on the other line picked up quickly. "Theodora-san? This is the front desk …. I'm doing fine, thanks …. There's a group of people here saying they want to come up to your penthouse. Should I let them up? … What are your names?"

"Just say it's Hideaki," said Hideaki.

"It's Hideaki … Oh, I didn't know … Okay …. See you. Bye, Theodora-san. You guys can go up. It's floor P3. Then again, you've been here before, right Hideaki?"

"Yes. Thanks. Come on, guys." They went to the elevator and hit the up button. There was silence for a few moments, then the elevator made a 'ding' noise. The doors opened, and they entered the elevator. Hideaki pressed 'P3', the elevator doors shut, and they started moving upward at a fast pace that made their stomachs lurch.

Takuya started humming a guitar riff and playing air guitar.

"Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom, boom," said Tommy.

"What are you guys—" Hideaki began.

"Elevator music," Kouji, Izumi, Kouichi, and JP replied in unison.

"Okay." Hideaki said. They watched the elevator numbers go up. Takuya and Tommy continued beat-boxing in harmony. After 62 floors, P1, and P2, The elevator made a 'ding' noise and the doors opened. They walked out of the elevator. Takuya took one look at their surroundings and ceased humming.

"Not very impressive," Takuya said, sneering. "There's just a few chairs, a door, and a dumb statue. My room is better than this heap."

"This is just the greeting room, Takuya. I'm sure it's much better inside," Izumi reminded him.

"And dude, your room isn't better than this. This room is doesn't have dirty underwear and soccer uniforms all over the floor." Kouji deadpanned.

They walked to a mahogany door. Hideaki pressed the buzzer. For a few moments, there was silence, then:

"Hello? Hideaki-kun, is that you? Come in! Come in!" said a teenage girl's voice that Kouichi immediately recognized. After all, he had only heard it a few hours earlier.

"I guess we can go in," said Hideaki. He turned the golden handle and pushed the door open.

"Woah!" everyone exclaimed.

"It's fifteen thousand square feet of paradise," said Hideaki.

They had entered the living room, a large, carpeted room with three steps leading down to a kitchen. Across the room floor-to-ceiling windows gave them a panoramic view of downtown Suginami. The floor was marble tile and it was spotless.

"This is her house? I couldn't afford to live here even if I had three jobs," whined JP.

"Gee thanks," said a girl's voice in a sarcastic tone.

Kouichi gasped in surprise, "It's you!"

Teddy was still in the clothes she had been wearing when Kouichi saw her last: a short black dress which was cinched at the waist and a glittery white top. She was holding a brown teddy bear. Her brown eyes scanned the group. "Hideaki! You know Kouichi?"

"Indeed," said Hideaki.

"Hey Teddy, nice to see you again," Kouichi said, smiling and blushing.

"Is Hideaki the friend you were talking about seeing earlier?" Teddy asked Kouichi.

He nodded.

"It's a small world after all," said Teddy.

"Brought you something," Hideaki said to Teddy. Teddy's brown eyes widened with childish excitement when she saw the cake in Hideaki's arms.

"Yaaaay! Cake~!" She skipped to the cake and peered at it excitedly. "What kind?"

"Red velvet, with strawberries in the middle," said Hideaki.

"Yuumm!"

"Do you like cake?" asked Izumi conversationally.

Teddy gave Izumi a fiery look. "I love teddy bears, food, and cutting. But I have to say I love food the most."

'What was that last one?' thought Izumi, but sensed it would seem odd to ask questions. "Hi, I'm Izumi. I love food too. All kinds of food, but especially Italian food, because I'm from there. Chinese food is good too," she added, referencing Teddy's home country.

"Ooh! Italy! My father owns hotels in Rome, Milan, and Florence. I've been to the one in Rome. It's beautiful. Just divine."

"I used to live in Italy," said Izumi, smiling. '_Have I just found a new friend?_'

Teddy made a motion to get the cake from Hideaki, but Hideaki moved it away from her. Teddy tried again, and Hideaki moved it away again.

"You can't have it yet."

"What! Why not!" Teddy yelled angrily. The DigiDestined sweatdropped at her loud voice.

"You have to go and wear your shoes and fill a backpack with food and bottled water. Then you have to agree to come out with us for a while. Then you can have the cake," said Hideaki.

"Okay." Teddy agreed, immediately.

**********10 minutes later…

Teddy came out of her bedroom with a teddy bear backpack and a change of clothes. Teddy was wearing a teddy bear hat, a brown polo shirt with a Ralph Lauren logo on the front pocket, blue skinny jeans rolled up to her ankles, and brown Chanel sneakers (A/N: remember what she's wearing because it's important to the story.)

"Done," Teddy said. "But I have a feeling I'm not going to eat the cake till I get back," she said sadly. She took the cake from Hideaki and placed it gently in the fridge. Then she came back.

"So, what's the adventure today?"

"_There's so much that we share  
That it's time we're aware  
It's a small world after all."_

_Jxn!enote: What a great chapter, don't you think? I think it's time for the adventure to start… but first I have to get through the introduction of all the characters. As always, R/R or no updates!_

**utsukushii04** – I worked hard on the characterization, trying to get each character exactly right.. It's just part of the process. Anyway, I appreciate your review!

xoxo juniebug


	7. Biyomon's Dilemma

_Jxn!enote: Hello all, welcome back. Guess what? Good news. I'm out of high school forever!  
_

_Anyway... Chapter seven is here. It's shorter than usual (more like chapters 1 and 2) and I apologize. I've been trying to get it perfect. Just for you guys. So, please enjoy it. Don't forget to review. No flames!  
_

* * *

**The Legend of the Sentinel Goddesses  
**  
**************Saruchi's room

6:30 PM. The time on the clock indicated that it was getting late; however, Saruchi noted with some disdain for her oh-so-annoying siblings, the house was almost empty. Both of Saruchi's siblings were still out with their friends, leaving a bored Saruchi alone at home to do… nothing. So far, she had reorganized her closet for the second time that week, alphabetized her CDs, changed the sheets, and cleaned her desk. She was a compulsive cleaner; she had to have her room as clean as her white hair, or she felt terribly discomposed.

Now that her room was tidy, she had enough spare time to contemplate the mysterious blue card. It shone in the light glowing from her bedroom ceiling. Moving it from side to side produced a rainbow of colors on its surface. It was just long and thin enough to fit into the disc drive of a Mac computer, fulfilling its primary purpose of transporting Saruchi to another world.

Speaking of other worlds, telling Kouji what had… happened… to her had been a good idea. Saruchi felt calm for the first time since her "dream".

Suddenly, Saruchi stood up and moved over to her Mac, deciding to check her email. She placed the card on the desk next to her and pressed the Mac's on button. The computer booted and soon, the familiar desktop of white stars against the purple cosmos appeared. She noticed a new icon on her desktop: a yellow dragon much like the one on the blue card. The mouse hovered over the icon. displayed on the monitor. Interested, Saruchi clicked it. An error message window opened, asking the user to please insert one (1) blue card. Saruchi glanced at the blue card. She instantly felt that her next action would be something she'd really regret in the morning. Despite her hesitation she inserted the blue card into the Mac's disc drive. She shut her eyes expectantly, expecting a flashing light from her memory. The computer made a low beeping noise. Saruchi opened one blue eye.

In a window labeled , the pixel dinosaur was on her screen. Its arms were moving up and down and its tail side to side. A quote bubble with half a page of text told Saruchi her full name and her IP address and asked for a 'destination', naming ten areas each with a checkbox next to their names: Flame Terminal, Light Terminal, Ice Region, Wind Region, Thunder Terminal, Earth Region, Forest Terminal, Water Island, Steel Terminal, and Dark Terminal. Without thinking much, Saruchi selected Wind Region and hit 'ok'. The window closed. The screen glowed, a familiar blue hue. Saruchi closed her eyes.

* * *

**************Wind Region

Saruchi opened her eyes again finding herself sitting on a tree branch.

"Woah, where am I?" Saruchi quickly checked her surroundings. She appeared to be at the top of a tree. Above her, rays of sunlight glowed through green leaves and brown branches. The nearest tree was a stone's throw away. The ground was visible below her. The distance seemed like miles. She immediately wondered how the _heck_ she was going to get down.

Saruchi swung her legs up and over the branch and pulled herself to a standing position. The next lowest branch was about five feet below her, but unfortunately, it was a quarter of the way around the tree. She wrapped her arms around the trunk and began jerking her leg in the direction of the branch. If only her legs were a little bit longer, she could reach.

A mauve fruit shaped like an avocado was hanging among a cluster of leaves just above her. She picked it off and struck it against the tree trunk until it cracked open. The inside looked just like a pear. Saruchi pressed her tongue against the flesh and licked it, to taste, then immediately pulled away. It tasted like spinach. She rubbed her tongue on her clothes.

A whooshing noise came from above. Saruchi dropped the fruit and instinctively wrapped her arms around the tree trunk. A pink bird about 6 feet tall with big blue eyes and a red beak landed on the branch right above her. It stared at her with one black pupil.

"H-hello," stammered Saruchi after several long moments.

The mutant bird, clearly a digimon, cocked its head to the side.

"What's your name?" Saruchi said.

"Biyomon," said the pink digimon. "What's yours?"

"Saruchi Kanbara," said Saruchi, shifting her position. Then she yelped.

"What's wrong?" asked Biyomon.

"Rock in my shoe," Saruchi said. She sat down on the branch and removed her boot.

"What are you doing in the Digital World?" asked Biyomon. Saruchi shook the boot. A gray stone fell into her hand.

"I don't really know. There was an old woman, the blue card, and Renamon," said Saruchi, tossing the pebble to the ground below.

Biyomon looked at her searchingly. Then she pressed one nail to her mouth. "Shh," she hissed

"What's happening?" Saruchi asked, putting her shoe back on.

But on the word 'What', Biyomon jumped onto Saruchi branch and placed its claw on Saruchi's mouth. Biyomon's claw smelled like berries. Moments passed. Saruchi made the unfortunate mistake of looking down. She tightened her arms around the tree.

After several moments, a large shadow darkened the leaves of the tree. Everything color went a couple of shades darker as if something had blocked the sunlight. Saruchi looked up and gasped quietly. A dragonish creature with a navy blue underbelly and navy blue, blue-green, and rose pink wings flew overhead, its head swiveling from side to side and focusing on the trees intently. It was so gigantic, it took almost thirty seconds for the tail alone to pass Saruchi. When the beast was a safe distance away, Saruchi glared at Biyomon.

"What was that thing?"

"That thing was DarkOrnismon. He's been looking for me for days. He wants to destroy me."

"Why?"

When the pink digimon spoke again, it spoke in a tone of anguish and hopelessness. "He has no reason. My friends, the other Biyomon, all got destroyed… and so did the Harpymon family… and the poor Blossomon, although they were quite unpleasant to be around…" she counted off several other species of Digimon that had been lost. "…anyway, it is my turn to play this cruel game of hide and seek," she finished.

"How can I help?" she asked.

"You can't."

"What! That's not fair!" Saruchi protested. "You have to do something… can't you destroy him?"

"I'm nowhere near powerful enough!" snapped Biyomon.

"Well then, is there a way you could hide?" asked Saruchi.

"There is one way," said the digimon thoughtfully.

"And that is…?"

* * *

**************In Shibuya

Tommy, walking at the back of the group, walked swiftly to catch up with Hideaki at the front of the group.

"Where are we going, Hideaki?" asked Tommy.

"We're going to Aya's house."

"The girl me and my friends saw at the train station?" Tommy asked.

"Indeed."

"How come you didn't meet Aya at the train station last week?"

"I saw you and your friends in the station. I couldn't risk being seen."

"You saw us? Where?"

"Entering the elevator," said Hideaki. "I was on the stairs."

"How did you recognize us?" Tommy asked.

"I have pictures of all of you on my laptop," said Hideaki.

Tommy's eyes widened. "Oh-kay…"

"Do you like computers?" asked Hideaki.

"Yeah, I like them a lot!" Tommy said. "I'm a proud geek."

"I didn't know middle schoolers knew what a geek was…" Hideaki smiled. "You must be pretty smart."

"You know how it is," Tommy said smoothly. Although, Tommy didn't think it took too much genius to know a little thing called 'labeling'. "I used to take apart and put back together my video game consoles from when I was younger."

"Cool," said Hideaki, turning his head to look behind him. Tommy looked too, but he only saw Takuya and Kouji talking in quiet tones. "Hey guys, we're almost there," he said to the rest of the group.

"Okay," they chorused.

Tommy turned his eyes to the sky. The sun was almost at the horizon. A crescent moon, half-transparent, was visible in the sky. It was getting dark. How were they going to meet Aya and go to the Digital World before bedtime?

Hideaki took out his cell phone. "I have to make a call," he said to Tommy. Tommy watched as Hideaki lifted his wrist to his mouth. On his wrist was a black cylindrical device that circled Hideaki's wrist and went up to the middle of his forearm. It snapped open revealing a rectangular screen and black buttons.

"No way. That looks awesome!" Tommy said, amazed at the device.

"It's an LG Cosmos 2009. State of the art," explained Hideaki. Which meant that it was next years model. Tommy stared at the device lovingly. Hideaki pressed a few buttons on the device. Then he snapped the screen shut and connected his headset.

"Hello?... Aya, this is Hideaki, we're going to be at your house in ten minutes. Please bring a small backpack and fill it with water and food…. dress lightly as if you were going to your friend's house. …okay. Say hi to Naruto. …tell him you'll be back tonight…...Bye."

"Who's Naruto?" asked Tommy.

"Her dog."

"Oh." Tommy said. He had been wondering who the mysterious Naruto from the love note was.

In Shibuya

Takuya and Kouji were talking heatedly. "So do you really want to trust this guy?" Kouji asked.

"Well we have no other choice. He's our only hope to get to you-know-where," Takuya said pointedly.

"But … we don't know his past… where he comes from… how he got Kouichi's number…" Kouji counted the list off on his fingers, seemingly confounded by the amount of items on his list. "He's so mysterious."

"You're imagining things," Takuya said finally.

Kouji looked at Takuya with cold navy eyes. "I am not imagining things. It's freaking weird how he just appeared out of no where, and if you think about it the relationships he has with Teddy and Aya is weird too."

"He seems like a nice, normal guy that happens to have a connection that we need… and possibly a secret love of young, impressionable girls," Takuya said. "Speaking of connections, have you heard from Kerpymon?"

"Not since he asked us for help." Kouji glanced at Takuya. Takuya's face betrayed days of worry.

"Maybe he's hiding. Waiting for us to get there." Takuya said confidently, but Kouji could tell Takuya didn't really believe it.

Maybe it was over. Maybe the worst had already happened.

"Maybe," Kouji said shortly.

In Shibuya

"Here we are," said Hideaki.

They had arrived in front of a wrought iron gate with a brick fence about 7 feet high. Hideaki looked behind him, checking that they were all there. Satisfied, he pressed the buzzer. A girl's voice answered the call immediately.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Aya-chan, it's me, Hideaki."

"Oh, come on in! The gate's open!"

Hideaki reached for the handle and opened the gate.

The group walked to the front door of the home, a two-story house. The front yard was decorated with squat gnomes and stone statues of Japanese demons. As they were walking to the front door, the front door suddenly opened and out came the petite girl that they had seen in the Trailmon station. A big yellow golden retriever bounded out of the house behind her.

"Hide-kun!" she exclaimed, running towards Hideaki and giving him a big hug.

"Aya-chan," said Hideaki. "And Naruto," he said, petting the golden retriever. "How are you doing?"

"Terrible. It's just terrible…" she sniffled, "My boyfriend just broke up with me."

"Uh, wow…" Hideaki looked at the others with wide eyes.

"That sucks so much," said Izumi, putting a hand on Aya's shoulder.

"My boyfriend is a scumbag!"

Izumi and Teddy gave each other knowing glances as Aya started to cry.

* * *

**************At the library

"Okay, everyone get in front of my laptop," said Hideaki. "Don't push, just stand right behind me in a straight line."

"I'm going to be first," said Tommy, excitedly.

"If you're first, I'm second," Takuya said.

"I'm third!" Junpei added.

"Can't you guys just get in line in a regular fashion?" asked Izumi, flipping her hair behind her head. "We are in a public place," she said seriously, gesturing around at the library. Not that anyone would have seen what the group was doing. They were in a secluded area of the library far from any people.

"What are we doing?" asked Teddy, somewhat impatiently.

"Yeah, no one exactly filled me in on why I had to pack all this stuff," Aya said with a slight whine, who had calmed down from the crying spell she had had earlier.

"We're going to be doing something important. It's going to be dangerous, but I need you guys to trust me," Hideaki said.

"I'm in, whatever it is," Aya said.

"Me too."

Hideaki opened several folders with long names until he finally opened a folder called _Project Terrier._

"What's Project Terrier?" asked Takuya curiously.

"Something me and my master made." Hideaki replied and opened a file called . A large window appeared.

"I have a bad feeling about this in my toesies," Aya muttered.

"Ready?" Hideaki looked at everyone, his eyes unseen behind the sunglasses.

"Yeah," the group chorused.

"Alright, here we go. He double clicked a button. The screen glowed white. "When I say go, everyone put your hand on my laptop."

"…Ready… set… go."

They all pressed a hand on whatever part of the laptop they could touch. The laptop glowed white, then the white light spread to each of their fingertips. The light spread up their arms and covered their bodies like a glowing white liquid. Then they were sucked into the computer and they were gone. Incidentally, everyone in the library continued doing what they were doing, paying no heed to the unoccupied black laptop.

* * *

**Isangtao:** Well, I guess in a way they are. I won't give too much away because I don't want to spoil the plot...that would be bad, ne?

**utsukushii04: **I _won't_ stop updating this story! *knocks on wood*


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